During a late night session of talks between European Union employment ministers in Luxembourg yesterday, the UK signed up to the European Agency Workers Directive after years of deadlock over the issue.
Crucially, there are no reports that UK government ministers negotiated a vital opt-out for highly skilled contractors working in sectors like IT, engineering and construction.
In a Department for Business announcement, Business Secretary John Hutton downplayed the impact of the agreement on agency working, claiming that the new arrangements will in fact increase the flexibility of the UK’s workforce.
He said: "The agreement on agency working will give a fair deal for agency workers and prevent unfair undercutting of permanent staff while retaining important flexibility for businesses to hire staff for short-term seasonal contracts or key busy times."
Although the new directive will grant temps the same rights as permanent workers after being employed for 12 weeks, in a recent ContractorCalculator survey, contractors made it very clear they did not want the directive to apply to them.
The only concession from Europe was confirmation that workers in the UK have the right to work more than 48 hours per week, an opt-out from the Working Time Directive, which is vital to maintaining the UK workforce’s flexibility.
When the directive is presented to the European Parliament, there will an opportunity for MEPs to further strengthen rights for temps and agency workers. Does this mean that exclusions can still be introduced to allow highly skilled contractors and freelance workers exemptions from the legislation?
ContractorCalculator will report back later on this issue with further analysis and commentary.
Published: Tuesday, June 10, 2008
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