Draft Directive threatens casual workers

Renewed EU and union pressure to resurrect the draft Agency Workers Directive could jeopardise up to 250,000 UK temporary placements, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says.

The draft Directive proposes putting agency workers on an equal footing with permanent staff after six weeks on an assignment. This, says the CBI, would reduce the key benefit of flexibility such workers offer to firms, undermining the incentive to employ them. EU government officials meet this week to discuss a Portuguese Presidency paper, which proposes ways to resurrect the Directive.

The 2007 CBI/Pertemps annual employment trends survey of over 500 firms, which between them employ 1.1 million staff, shows that at any time 3% of employees are temporary.

However, 58% of employers said such a law would lead to a “significant” cut in the use of temporary workers. Of the firms surveyed, 62% said the Directive in its current form would damage flexibility, 65% believed it would significantly increase costs and 58% said it would mean additional bureaucracy. The CBI’s deputy director-general, John Cridland, says: “As proposed, the Directive would seriously undermine the flexibility that temps offer to firms, hurting the economy and making them far more likely to rely on overtime flexibility from existing workers instead.”

The survey also reveals that 95% of employers are offering at least one form of flexible working practice. The most dramatic increase has been in teleworking—staff working on the move or from home—which is now offered by almost half (46%) of employers, four times as many as in 2004 (11%).