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The Agency Workers Directive does not come without challenging practicalities
The European Union’s Agency Workers Directive (AWD) has been quietly simmering away in the background for several years. There have been countless false starts, revival attempts and blocking moves played out across the great governmental powerhouses of the EU. After renewed pressure from the European Union and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the directive was finally approved on 22 October 2008, giving temporary workers in the UK equal rights to permanent staff after 12 weeks with an employer.
However, a recent survey by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) found that of 300 recruiters surveyed, 48% thought the implementation of the directive (likely in 2010) will increase the cost of using temporary staff by 10%. In the UK it is estimated that there are 700,000 agency workers in temporary work at any given time.
Other surveys have revealed that 57% of average assignments lasted longer than 12 weeks, thus showing that the AWD will affect the majority significantly. Practical issues within organisations will affect HR departments, in particular, where, although 25% indicated they will have little problem identifying equal pay structures, 35% said they would have difficulty identifying a comparable worker. Two-thirds of the survey’s respondents fear a greater risk of employment tribunals.
Overall, it appears that while there is a clear intention for the Directive to work by providing temporary staff with equal rights, it does not come without challenging practicalities. Increased administrative tasks, fear of falling foul of the law and the ultimate concern of the affect the AWD will have upon the unique flexibility brought about by the use of temporary staff and their long term existence in the UK labour marketplace.
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