'Pay threshold should exempt freelancers twice'

The same pay threshold proposed to exclude freelancers from the Agency Workers Directive should be used to determine those who could retain the 'opt-out' from the agency rules.



Issuing the call, the Association of Professional Staffing Companies said £17.40 per hour, or more, should guarantee the worker exclusion from both the EU directive and from the 2003 regulations.



In other words, temporary workers outside the scope of the directive would retain the opt-out, while workers within its scope would lose the choice of whether to opt-out, APSCo said.



Ann Swain, chief executive, added: "We feel that three times the national minimum wage is about the right income level for temporary workers to be outside the scope of the directive and therefore retain the opt-out.



"It would mean that about 90% of workers placed by APSCo members would remain almost entirely unaffected by both of these potentially very damaging legislative changes."



In its submission to the consultation on the agency rules, the group argued that they increased red tape, made agencies more susceptible to fraud and limited the fees that they could charge clients.



Meanwhile, the directive will harm the prospects of freelancers, APSCo has said, as employers will have to shoulder the cost of providing them the same perks and protections as employees from their twelfth week in work.