Blair confirms extension of two-tier rules

Speaking at last month's Welsh Labour Party conference, prime minister Tony Blair confirmed that regulations to end the two-tier workforce in local government would now be extended across the public sector.

This will mean that contractors working for the public services will have to ensure that pay and conditions for new staff are no worse than those applying to workers transferred from the public sector.

Tony Woodley, general secretary of the T&G general union said: ''Public sector workers will welcome this as a restatement of the government's positive attitude towards public sector delivery of public services.''

UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said the move was: ''great news for all the low-paid workers - cleaners, cooks, porters and many more who have been shifted from company to company across the public sector and treated so badly along the way.''.