Agency Workers to get same rights as full-time employees.

During the TUC annual conference this month, the Prime Minister said “i believe that the fight for fairness must include agency workers, and so I pledge......that when Parliaments returns, our new legislative programme will include equal treatment for agency workers.”

The UK Government is required to implement the European Union’s “Agency Workers Directive” by the 5^th December 2011. A survey commissioned by the TUC from YouGov, which included interviews with over 2,700 people that currently worked as temps (or had done so in the previous in the previous 12 months), revealed that many temps have faced discrimination at work. 46% of those surveyed said they’d received less holiday entitlement than their permanent employee equivalents, and 33% said that they were paid less than their permanent employee equivalents for doing the same work.¹

The Association of Recruitment Consultants, Adrian Marlowe, has expressed concern over the Prime Minister’s comments, saying that an early move to implement the Directive would “hit jobs and the economy hard”.²  Mr Marlowe has said that “At a time when employers need flexibility and encouragement to take on new workers gold plating the Directive will simply lead to greater unemployment”.

In the last couple of years, a number of court decisions have given comfort to employers that have wanted to use agency workers at least in part to reduce their risk of exposure to Employment Law obligations and disputes. In a fragile economy, with a need for flexible employment market, the use of agency workers can be beneficial. The pledge from the Prime Minister may be welcomed by the TUC, but is unlikely to be welcomed by small and medium sized businesses. There is also the fact that many people work as temps specifically for the benefit of flexibility that comes with it. Gaining various protections enjoyed by permanent employees may come with additional requirements and restrictions that many temps may not welcome.

The UK Government is obliged, at some point no later than the 5^th December 2011 to implement the European agency Workers Directive. This will require businesses that use temps to review their policies and terms of using temps. The recent pledge from the Prime Minister should serve as a prompt to businesses to carry out such a review very shortly.

If you need any further advice and help on the issues raised in this article please do not hesitate to contact us.

¹ See www.tuc.org.uk/equality 

“New laws must give agency workers genuine equal rights”             29/07/09

²  See www.contractoruk.com/news  

“Brown will fast-track agency worker rights”.                                   18/09/09