CIPD warns EU directive will limit opportunities for temps

The
CIPD has criticised the draft EU directive on agency workers, officially
published for the first time this week, as unnecessary and impractical.

The
directive will give temporary workers the right to the same pay and benefits as
permanent staff once they have been with an employer for six weeks.

Diane
Sinclair, CIPD employee relations adviser, said: "The draft directive will
limit opportunities for temping in the UK. 
If organisations are forced to go through the bureaucratic process of
comparing terms and conditions of temps with permanent staff, they are much
less likely to use agency staff."

Sinclair
thinks the Commission’s decision to make equal treatment applicable only after
an agency worker has been with the same organisation for six weeks will do
little to change employers’ views of the draft directive.

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"If
implemented in the UK as it currently stands, the directive will damage
employment prospects for those who can’t find a permanent job or who do not
want one. It’s difficult to see who will benefit significantly from the
proposals," she said.

By Ben Willmott