Quebecor World, St Ives and Trinity Mirror were named by The Guardian as being among UK companies that are supposedly exploiting migrant labour (see box). All three companies have refuted the story’s claims.

The article came as trade union Unite launched a campaign against, among other issues, the exploitation of migrant workers to coincide with the Labour Party conference this week.

Unite wants the government to sign up to the European Agency Temporary Workers directive, which guarantees parity of pay and conditions between agency and permanent staff.

But print bosses refuted claims made by the newspaper over the use of agency workers. Quebecor World UK managing director Andrew Parker said that claims about his firm were “absolutely not true” and added that the company had had no contact from the union.

Parker said: “Based on our customers’ requirements, we sub-contract part of the variable labour to a reputable organisation that supplies a managed service of skilled and semi-skilled labour to the printing and other industries. The workers have full UK employment rights.”

St Ives, which was accused of converting up to 25% of its Andover workforce to agency labour, also refuted the article’s claims.

Patrick Martell, St Ives operations director, said: “The facts about the Andover situation are simply inaccurate. We have around 120 staff at Andover, of which one is a casual worker, employed through a local agency.”

A Trinity Mirror spokesman said: “It is not true that migrant workers are paid lower rates. All of our agency staff, regardless of origin, are on the same rate of pay.”

The background for the article is understood to have come from a Unite survey, which uncovered “unacceptable differences” between terms and conditions for permanent and agency staff. Unite said that it was currently seeking to verify the findings of this survey with agencies and employers.

Tony Burke, Unite assistant general secretary, said the campaign targeted unequal pay and conditions between permanent and temporary staff and the “systematic replacement” of permanent staff with cheaper agency staff. “There’s no place for this sort of treatment in the industry,” he said.

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GUARDIAN ALLEGATIONS
• St Ives around 20 migrant agency workers at Clays allegedly have lower pay and worse conditions
• Trinity Mirror Printing Alleged lower rates of pay for Eastern European workers at Watford plant
• Quebecor World Alleged replacement of unskilled permanent staff with agency workers