06 June 2003
There is a 'pressing case' to expand local government's ground-breaking deal on the two-tier workforce to the rest of the public sector, the former transport secretary Stephen Byers said this week.
Speaking at the Social Market Foundation on June 3, Byers said this was particularly urgent in the NHS, where Agenda for Change, the scheme modernising pay and conditions, could widen disparities between workers who are contracted out and those directly employed.
The programme, which has now been accepted by most of the health unions, will apply only to those directly employed by the NHS.
Byers, who brokered the two-tier talks in local government, added that the 'public service ethos' was being broken down by outsourcing, where people were being paid different rates for the same jobs.
His comments are likely to add fuel to the unions' campaign to expand the two-tier deal and could make unhappy reading for reluctant ministers already under pressure from private sector interests.
But unions and the private sector are still thrashing out the finer details of this deal, particularly how disputes will be resolved, which will have a huge impact on the rest of the sector.
Under the agreement, new workers will enjoy pay and conditions 'no less favourable' than those of their colleagues transferred under Transfer of Undertakings (Tupe) conditions.
'It is fair treatment for employees and will go a long way towards securing improvements in public provision,' Byers added.
His comments were immediately seized on by Unison, which is warning of a public row at its annual conference this month if the issue is not resolved. 'When we got into talks with him [Byers] we achieved real results,' a spokeswoman said. 'We want to see it rolled out across all sectors. We can't afford to allow people to be paid different rates for doing the same jobs.'
The former Cabinet minister also stoked the fire of the Private Finance Initiative, claiming that the first 11 PFI hospitals would not have been given approval if they had been procured under current rules and discount rates.
He also called for the Treasury to examine the National Asset Registry and force police authorities and the Highways Agency to pass on empty homes and land for key workers.
PFjun2003
