News
Equal Rights For Agency Workers
30/11/2009
By Lea Pachta
In this year's Queen's speech the Government announced it will in the next parliamentary session, "legislate to provide agency workers with the right to be treated equally with permanent staff on pay, holidays and other basic conditions" and Adams & Remers solicitors is urging employers of all sizes to start to consider the implications this may have on their business.
This announcement ties in with the requirement of a European directive on agency workers passed in December 2008 which the UK government has until 5 December 2011 to implement. This EU directive provides the "basic working and employment conditions" of temporary agency workers shall be at least those of an employee in the same undertaking occupying the same job.
The directive does clarify that basic working and employment conditions means conditions relating to the duration of working time, overtime, breaks, rests, night work, holidays and public holidays, and pay. The directive does not give the agency workers any protection in terms of unfair dismissal, notice period or the right to a redundancy payment.
Following consultations the Government has held it has indicated these proposed changes will apply to agency staff working for 12 weeks or more.
So how is this likely to affect employers and agencies:
- In many cases, especially where an agency worker is engaged for a particular one-off project, there may be no obvious permanent employee comparator. In these circumstances, it will be difficult to identify what the worker will be entitled to by way of equal treatment.
- The 12 week qualifying period may lead to a regular turn-over of agency staff and gaps between periods of assignment, in order to avoid the rules on equal treatment. The UK implementing legislation is likely to contain provisions clarifying how long a break between... continued on page two >
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