Agency workers face discrimination and poor treatment

There are concerns that the Government will gold plate the Agency Workers Directive which is due to be implemented by 5th December 2011.

The Directive applies to agency staff who are referred onto temporary work by an agency. The receiving business supervises and controls the agency staff work, but the agency retains responsiblity for their pay, working time and other employment obligations. The Directive does not apply to agencies which head hunt individuals and refer them on to permanent employment.

A recent TUC commissioned YouGov survey, which interviewed 2700 agency workers, found that:

• 33% of agency workers said they were paid less than directly recruited staff for doing the same work;
• 28% said they missed out on overtime and unsocial hours payments;
• 46% received less holiday entitlement;
• 75% were entitled to less redundancy pay than directly employed staff; and
• 70% reported that they were entitled to less maternity pay.

The aim of the legislation is to address the discrimination suffered by agency workers by applying a principle of equal treatment when compared to temporary workers who have been directly recruited to do the same job. The Directive will apply to temporary workers when they have been in a post in excess of 12 weeks and will apply to pay, holiday, working time, access to collective facilities and access to permanent job opportunities and training. There is no change intended to the agency worker's employment status and their current employment rights.

In negotiations, the UK Government sought to block the Directive due to fears about how it would affect the British labour market which currently has over 1.3 million agency workers working in both the public and private sectors. However, the Institute of Directors and Association of Recruitment Consultants has now levelled criticism saying that the Government is planning to exceed the obligations of the Directive. They allege that the Directive only has to apply to businesses with formalised pay structures which should exclude 90 per cent of temporary staff working in small businesses, and that by applying the legislation to all agency workers it will cost UK businesses in excess of £12 billion.

The Government consultation carried out by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills on how the Directive should be implemented closed on 31 July 2009. This will be followed by a second consultation on draft regulations.