A report in The Guardian newspaper has highlighted a culture of using migrant casual workers that seems to be spinning out of control.

Amicus assistant general secretary Tony Burke said that the two organisations were in talks as part of their Partnership at Work project.

Burke said that although there were a considerable number of employment agencies within the industry that were respectable, some union branches had been encountering workers from less than reputable ones.

He detailed one instance where a group of workers turned up to work at an unnamed magazine printer, with little or no grasp of the English language. This posed significant problems for relaying advice on health and safety issues.

Subsequent investigations showed that this group had also worked in the agricultural industry. In a separate case, a number of workers were found to have no legal right to be employed in the UK.

"It's clear that some of these people coming in are being put into dangerous environments and cannot be given proper health and safety guidance," said Burke.

The BPIF's strategic partnerships director Andy Brown said the two organisations wanted to ensure that employees could work safely and follow instructions.

"Agencies need to ensure workers can do this, and that means employers using reputable employment agencies," he said.

Burke stressed that the union would continue do all it could to help legitimately employed workers with language problems.

"Gangmasters"
* Under discussion as part of BPIF and Amicus'  Partnership at Work project 
* Enforcement agencies estimate there are 10,000 "Gangmasters" operating across the sectors in the UK
* Gangs of workers are often brought in to handle menial, low-paid jobs

Story by Andy Scott