UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis today called on the Prime Minister to honour his pledge made to UNISON publicly two years’ ago to end the two-tier workforce – the practice whereby private contractors can make profits by cutting the pay and conditions of workers. He said:
“Two years ago the Prime Minister gave UNISON a public commitment that private companies would no longer be able to exploit workers in this way. We concluded a deal for local government workers in England last year, but we are still waiting for it to be rolled out to health, education, defence and all our other public services.
“That commitment must be honoured now, not some time in the future, not some way down the road. This is an issue of fairness and an issue of the credibility of the Government and the Prime Minister. I cannot understand why we are still waiting. This is about righting one of the wrongs of Thatcherism and making sure that low paid mainly women workers are not exploited by private companies.”
UNISON’s contemporary motion to the Labour Party conference calls for an end to foundation hospitals; for the agreement to end the two-tier workforce in local government to be extended across all public services and for the introduction of a fair wages clause in all public contracting.