A fresh crackdown on rogue employers who mistreat workers was announced yesterday by John Hutton, business and enterprise secretary. Mr Hutton, speaking at the TUC annual conference in Brighton, announced measures including bigger fines for business and employment agencies that break the law by underpaying or make illegal deductions from workers' wages.

Mr Hutton, however, warned that the government would not give in to union demands for temporary and agency workers to be given the same pay and conditions as full-time staff if it damaged Britain's flexible labour market.