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A parliamentary bill that would give temporary agency workers the same rights as full-time employees should exclude IT contractors, its architect has declared. Andrew Miller said he does not want contractors who use recruiters to be included in the measures, to align temp staff’s pay and rights with their directly employed counterparts. The MP’s comments are a welcome sign for enterprise that all agency-supplied technical staff, including engineers, will be exempt if the bill passes committee stage in a few weeks. That would be a victory for its critics like the CBI, which says up to 250,000 temp jobs could go if, as it proposes, employers have to fund temp staff with pensions and equal pay. Explaining the fears, ATSCo has said that giving employee rights to UK IT contractors would undermine the flexibility they need to work on short, cutting-edge projects worldwide. “We are pleased that Andrew Miller has publicly acknowledged that contractors in the technology sector should be excluded from this bill,” Ann Swain, group chief executive said on Friday. Reflecting on the proposals to the group, Mr Miller explained he “did not want to include providers of professional services who chose to work through agencies.” The bill, drawn up to “end the insecurity and mistreatment of agency workers,” was, he said, “designed to exclude professional IT contactors and similar people.” In response, ATSCo said it “fully supports the protection of vulnerable agency workers” though it welcomed the hint of exclusions, so far believed to be solely for technical contractors. “Temporary workers in IT and engineering usually earn significantly more than their fulltime counterparts and choose to work as contractors because of the flexible lifestyle benefits,” Ms Swain said. “This message is finally getting through to UK lawmakers.” Apr 7, 2008 Email this article Printer friendly page Previous Page
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