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A commission proposed by Gordon Brown to examine how temporary agency staff could get similar workplace rights to employees may be a “monster” in waiting. Although the PM’s envisioned body is preferable to “sleepwalking” into EU legislation on the issue, it would require close monitoring from businesses to ensure that their concerns are met. Becoming the latest employer group to offer qualified support to a type of forum on temps' rights, the EEF, for manufacturers, also said it wouldn’t just green light union demands. The unions say legislation should be introduced to give agency workers more protection from exploitation, and to stop them being used in the short-term to undercut employees’ wages. But business worries new laws for agency workers would make them less flexible and therefore less appealing to employers, possibly causing the elimination of 250,000 temp roles. Joined by recruitment and freelance groups, business says the best way to protect agency workers is better enforcement of existing laws, not the creation of new ones as unions want. However, the business lobby is starting to compromise. “We are ready and willing to address the concerns of Labour MPs and the trade unions,” said Tom Hadley, a director at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. But he stressed that any proposals by the commission “should not be to the detriment to the phenomenal success of the temporary work market at creating jobs and keeping businesses competitive.” The government should also set out clearly what it expects such a commission to achieve, said Ian Peters, head of external affairs at the EEF. “It’s a potential monster,” he told the Daily Telegraph yesterday, referring to the commission “It’s really important that we keep it under control. But if we don’t find a way forward we could be sleepwalking into a European directive that could cause more problems.” The unions are less conciliatory than their opponents and want agency workers to get full employment rights from day one of service, not the sixth week as proposed under the EU Directive. Yesterday the TUC reportedly pointed to Labour’s manifesto commitment to improve the status of agency workers as the reason it was maintaining its pressure on Gordon Brown. It won't watch the issue “kicked into the long grass,” the union said, alluding to the prospect of a commission, which Unite believes amounts to an unsatisfactory “promise of jam tomorrow.” Feb 29, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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