A new agency workers' commission could finally dispel some of the negative myths that surround this type of work in the UK, according to the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). Reports have suggested that the government is considering s  More...
15 February 2008 10:05

An agency worker’s unfair dismissal claim has been rejected by the Court of Appeal today - putting an end to months of uncertainty about the employment status of agency  workers. Mrs James, who worked for Greenwich Council, brought a   More...
05 February 2008 15:28

Recruitment agencies have hit back at claims the government is wasting taxpayers' money by paying up to £121 per hour for temporary nurses. The Conservative Party hit out after discovering that the NHS' annual temporary staff bill has doubled to £1  More...
04 February 2008 14:09

Many HR professionals are gearing up for the potential introduction of the Agency Workers Directive and the rights it could grant to temporary workers. Yet still the stereotype of the office temp, who fills in for a few days and then disappears, continu  More...
04 February 2008 13:00

North Wales Probation Area v Edwards FACTS Mrs Edwards was registered as a temporary ('relief') hostel worker, and worked most shifts offered to her by the North Wales Probation Service. The question arose as to whether she was an employe  More...
14 January 2008 12:51

Making the decision to become a human resources (HR) consultant and leave the constraints of permanent employment was the best thing I've ever done. I couldn't have predicted, however, that IT would become the bane of my life. I thought I'  More...
14 January 2008 11:19

A leading employers' organisation has urged the government to stand firm in 2008 under increasing union pressure to implement employee-friendly European Union legislation. Trade unions have been pushing strongly for the introduction of the Agenc  More...
07 January 2008 10:00

The UK cannot resist EU employment rights forever, so employers need to plan for the worst-case scenario. Another chapter in the saga of the Temporary Agency Workers Directive ended, yet again, without agreement between member states on this highly  More...
07 January 2008 08:00

Fears that domestic legislation will be passed giving temporary workers full employment rights have grown after EU ministers failed to reach agreement on the Agency Workers Directive last week. The UK government was one of the few that opposed th  More...
10 December 2007 10:30

The threat to tens of thousands of British jobs through the takeover of Jaguar and Land Rover illustrates the risks of giving temporary workers full employment rights, manufacturers have warned. Employers body the EEF said that without the ability to  More...
27 November 2007 08:20

Temporary workers are losing out on training offered to permanent staff and so becoming ever less likely to secure a permanent contract, according to trade unions. The Trades Union Congress (TUC) says unless temps are given equal employment rights fr  More...
23 November 2007 09:22

The TUC is calling on the government to support a Private Members' Bill in Parliament today (Friday) that would give agency staff equal rights at work. The union body claims the Bill, if enacted into law, would save one million temporary work  More...
19 October 2007 10:22

More than 250,000 temporary jobs could be axed if the government bows to pressure at this week's TUC Congress to give agency workers full employment rights, the CBI has claimed. With a senior member of the cabinet - possibly prime minister Gor  More...
10 September 2007 00:00

HR news on temporary workers, NHS redundancy payouts and Belfast City Airport workers' threat to go on hunger strike, presented by Mike Berry, Gareth Vorster and Greg Pitcher. Sarah Veale tells Greg Pitcher about how the main topic for discussion a  More...
24 August 2007 14:33

The controversial Agency Workers Directive is back on the agenda under the Portuguese presidency of the EU , which began on 1 July. New employment relations minister Pat McFadden told a committee of MPs last week that the  More...
17 July 2007 15:16

Employers' bodies have slammed trade union plans to lobby government for a ban on the use of 'zero-hour' contracts. Delegates at the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) annual conference in Brighton earlier this month voted for a campaign to   More...
29 May 2007 08:00

Trade unions have again called for agency workers to have equal rights to permanent employees after a survey revealed widespread dissatisfaction among temporary staff. The YouGov poll of 2,500 agency workers showed that 56% did not have the same hol  More...
29 May 2007 08:00

McDonald's  is stepping up its campaign to change the dictionary definition of ' McJob '. Dictionaries currently describe McJob as "an unstimulating, low-paid job with few prospects, esp. one created by the expansion of the service sect  More...
24 May 2007 09:18

The anonymous office temp - the nameless worker who takes lunch alone and spends most of their time at the photocopier - has become a thing of the past. According to a survey by office recruitment firm Gordon Yates , a whole new breed of 'car  More...
20 March 2007 00:00

Legislation that would give temporary workers the same rights as directly employed staff has been ‘talked out’ by MPs and denied a vote in Parliament. The Temporary Agency Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Bill, b  More...
06 March 2007 12:30