Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Employment lawHR practiceAgency workers

Agency workers regulations could be reviewed if Conservatives win election

by Mike Berry 19 Feb 2010
by Mike Berry 19 Feb 2010

The Conservatives have indicated they will review new agency workers regulations if they come to power after the general election.

Shadow business minister Jonathan Djanogly told an audience of recruitment professionals and employers that the regulations – due to come into force in October 2011 as part of the European Agency Workers Directive (AWD) – would reduce the flexibility of the UK’s labour market.

Critics of the new laws – which give temps equal rights to permanent employees after 12 weeks in a job – have warned they will lead to a loss of income for recruitment companies as employers seek to reduce reliance on temps to compensate for the extra cost of hiring them.

Djanogly said: “As things stand, the regulations are counter-intuitive. They should encourage the agency market and not detract from it. The future will be about flexibility in the workplace. Agency workers are a key way to get young people into the workplace, and the regulations will have a negative impact in this respect.”

He also suggested that trade unions wanted the legislation because it provided a bigger pool of workers that could be unionised.

Djanogly indicated that if the Tories were elected, then they would be happy to review the proposed legislation as they were “very unhappy” about the fact that the proposed 12-week qualifying period was not set out in the AWD, nor was there any consultation from employers, the recruitment industry, or Parliament.

The CBI and TUC struck a deal with the government in May 2008 following pressure from the European Union to resolve the issue.

Djanogly was speaking at an event organised by the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC).

The ARC’s chairman Adrian Marlowe said a ‘two-tier system’ for agency workers – with the lowest paid achieving rights after 12 weeks, and the more skilled, higher-paid workers after 12 months – was fairer.


XpertHR has a range of FAQs on employing agency workers and contracts of employment.

Avatar
Mike Berry

previous post
Pay freezes become the median basic pay settlement
next post
Fit-note guidance for employers is published

You may also like

Examiner was worker, not self-employed, finds tribunal

30 May 2023

Holiday pay changes: how entitlement will be simplified

26 May 2023

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

26 May 2023

Non-compete clauses and proposed limits on their duration

12 May 2023

How are working time records changing in the...

12 May 2023

Changes to working time, TUPE and non-competes announced

10 May 2023

Unions challenge repeal of agency worker ban

2 May 2023

Government urged not to backtrack on Worker Protection...

2 May 2023

EU law bill set to stall as unions...

28 Apr 2023

High Court halts full nurses’ strike

27 Apr 2023

  • The HR Bundle: Your one-stop guide to building a successful global HR Department PROMOTED | Get your hands on Deel’s free HR bundle...Read more
  • The Benefits of an Employee Assistance Programme PROMOTED | EAPs support employees in a range of ways...Read more
  • Intergenerational working and how to manage up and down the generations PROMOTED | The benefits and challenges of intergenerational workplaces...Read more
  • Bereavement in the workplace: How training can help HR get it right PROMOTED | HR professionals play an essential role...Read more
  • UK workforce mental wellbeing needs PROMOTED | The mental wellbeing support employers are providing misses the mark...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+