Member

If those jobs go, what happens to them? Two scenarios have now been raised by quite a number of people. One is to say that instead of having a part-time employee, as an employee is more closely engaged with my organisation, I will contract out the work. The Minister already knows that I am very concerned about umbrella companies, which are intermediaries, basically employment agencies. They can deal rather badly with the people who work through them, the contractors. There is now a fear that we are going to get mini-umbrella companies, which will escape some of the requirements for employers’ contributions, and part-time workers will end up focused within those groups, so you have the most vulnerable people again subjected to a group of intermediaries whose reputation is not stellar as regards taking care of the people with whom they engage.