Serious complaints against recruitment agencies fall

The number of serious complaints against recruitment agencies fell in 2007, the latest annual report by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has revealed.

Although the number of general complaints and enquiries rose by 20% to 820 in the last year, the number of serious cases dropped to 24 in 2007, compared to 94 in 2006.

The REC defines serious breaches as matters such as acting on behalf of a client without proper authority and unlawful deduction of pay.

Temporary workers accounted for 30% of cases and were again the main complainants, but this was still a drop of 20% on last year's figures.

REC head of professional standards Claire Walker said: "The introduction of the new national inspection programme and assessment officers, who have been carrying out random spot checks on agency compliance, has certainly made a difference to the outcomes of our investigation work."