Part of Equality Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:30 am on 23 June 2009.
John Penrose
Shadow Minister (Business, Innovation and Skills)
10:30,
23 June 2009
To clarify the Minister’s point, it is important to understand what the similarities and the legitimate differences might be. I hope to hear reassurance that the legitimate differences might be that contract workers would be different because of the terms of their contract and the fact that they are not permanent employees and have different terms and conditions as a legal basis for their engagement with the principal. However, if the task that they are performing is, under the terms of the contract, the same as that of a full-time employee, that would be a fair comparison. In other words, we are not trying to eliminate the differences between contract workers and full-time workers, those being different forms of employment—both of which have a legitimate purpose and value in the workplace, and which we would not want to fudge or try to elide.
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