Firms would not be able to undercut wages by paying agency staff less than permanent staff under a Labour government, Ed Miliband has said.
Writing in the Independent on Sunday, the Labour leader said the party would close a loophole in the law that allowed for differing rates of pay.
Mr Miliband said he wanted to tighten the rules to "stop a race to the bottom with workers coming here from abroad".
Labour had "changed on immigration" since it lost power in 2010, he added.
Mr Miliband said the cost of living crisis was the most important context for the debate about immigration.
"Low-skill immigration" risked "making the problems of the cost of living crisis worse for those at the sharp end", he told the newspaper. "It isn't prejudiced to believe that."
'Chronic dependency'He used the article to set out a number of policies on the same theme, including:
- Increasing fines for firms that breach minimum wage legislation
- Banning recruitment agencies from having a policy of hiring only foreign workers
- Stopping the use of "tied housing", which allows agricultural firms to pay less to workers who get accommodation as part of their job
"We have to change our country's chronic dependency on low-skill, low-wage labour. A dependency that is getting worse not better," he wrote.
"What chance of rising living standards for all when unscrupulous firms can exploit workers from abroad to get around the minimum wage?
"What chance of giving everyone a fair shot when recruitment agencies are allowed to recruit only from overseas, excluding those in the area from even hearing about the jobs?"
Trade union umbrella body the TUC has said that agency workers are paid on average up to £135 a week less than permanent staff doing the same job.
'Fearful of change'It said one-in-six agency workers was missing out because of a loophole in the UK's implementation of the EU's temporary agency workers directive.
There are an estimated one million agency workers in the UK, employed particularly in call centres, food production and logistics.
Labour's pledge comes days after rules restricting the right of Romanians and Bulgarians to work in the UK were relaxed.
Amid suggestions they could number up to 50,000, Prime Minister David Cameron has brought in measures restricting access to jobless benefits and NHS healthcare.
Mr Miliband wrote: "Whatever the numbers of people that eventually come here, the concern that this has highlighted is not going away."
He added: "This cost of living crisis is the most important context for the debate about immigration. It understandably makes people more fearful of the change that immigration brings."
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