The government has been urged to abandon plans to allow employers to use agency workers to cover strikes, with the resurrected proposal being described as ‘ill-judged’.
The Trades Union Congress (TUC) and Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) have published a joint statement that says repealing regulation 7 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 will only “prolong and inflame” the conflict between employers and their permanent staff.
In July 2023 the High Court ruled the repeal of the agency worker ban during strikes unlawful, due to concerns about a lack of a recent consultation. This led to the 2022 regulations being quashed.
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However, the government has since resurrected the plans, with the Department for Business and Trade publishing a consultation that ran between November and January. The consultation closed last week and the government is currently analysing the responses.
The joint statement from the TUC and REC says: “We both believe that using agency staff to cover strikes only prolongs and inflames the conflict between employers and their permanent staff.
“It also risks placing agency staff and recruitment businesses in the centre of often complicated and contentious disputes over which they have no control.
“The proposal is simply impractical. There are currently significant numbers of vacancies for temporary agency workers. This suggests that many can pick and choose the jobs they take and are unlikely to opt for roles that require them to undermine industrial action.
“Meanwhile, many roles that may be on strike require technical skills or training and impractical to fill with agency workers at very short notice.”
The proposal has also been criticised by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which said the government has failed to provide sufficient evidence about the potential impact the repeal would have on workers’ rights under Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which protects the right to form and join a trade union.
It said in its consultation response: “The government’s policy rationale for repealing regulation 7 is ‘to remove an unnecessary barrier to businesses’ freedom to operate and thereby help to facilitate economic growth’. Whilst we recognise the importance of enabling businesses to operate, especially in the current climate, we are concerned that the accompanying consultation Impact Assessment (IA) makes no assessment of the impact of the proposals on Article 11 ECHR rights or the UK’s international human rights obligations.
“We consider that the evidence presented in the IA fails to articulate a legitimate aim for the interference with this right and why the proposed interference is necessary and proportionate to protect that legitimate aim.”
Neil Carberry, chief executive of the REC, said: “Agencies across the country have been clear that they do not want the law changed again.
“The ban on direct replacement of striking workers reflects global good practice and protects temps and agencies from being drawn into disputes that are nothing to do with them.
“Removal of the ban does nothing to resolve those disputes either. The REC was clear in 2022 that this is a step which only causes problems for businesses and workers in reality – however good politicians think it sounds.”
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said the plan was “spiteful [and] cynical”.
“Bringing in agency staff to deliver important services in place of strikers risks worsening disputes and poisoning industrial relations,” he said. “Agency recruitment bodies have repeatedly made clear they don’t want their staff to be put in the position where they have to cover strikes. It’s time for ministers to listen and drop these plans for good.”
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