Britain's Trades Union Congress claims millions of workers, including the Spice Girls' make-up artists, are denied basic rights like holiday pay or maternity leave because they do not have a permanent employment contract.

Paul Lewis discusses the report on Radio 5L's Breakfast Programme (Dur: 2-49)

There are 2.7 million workers caught in the "flexible working trap", according to the TUC.

Its report says workers on short-term contracts are routinely denied compensation for unfair dismissal or redundancy, have no holiday pay or maternity leave and often have lower wages than permanent colleagues doing the same job.

Many workers are on "zero hours" contracts and are only paid for times for which they are called in, it adds.

TUC General Secretary John Monks

TUC General Secretary John Monks said the "disgraceful and growing exploitation" showed how urgently workers needed legislation on fairness at work.

"Many of these workers are employed by household name companies, not fly-by-night firms, and they are suffering the effects of the down side of Britain's flexible labour market."

The TUC is urging the Government to extend rights given to permanent workers to temporary staff.

The report includes the case of make-up artists who worked on Spiceworld - the Movie. It said they were denied pay for Christmas and Easter bank holidays and received no overtime or sick pay.
 

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