The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has warned that Britain’s commitment to adopting the European Union’s agency workers directive would slow the UK’s economic recovery and result in a flurry of spurious tribunal claims against employers.
The directive aims to give temporary staff the same pay and conditions as permanent workers once they have been in a workplace for more than 12 weeks, but the precise terms are a source of much contention between employers and trade unions.
With government consultation on the plans closing at the end of this week, David Frost, the director general of the BCC, has written to business secretary Lord Mandelson asking for the implementation to be delayed until October 2011, the last possible date.
“Implementing earlier risks crippling the agency sector and hampering job creation and ultimately economic growth,” he said.
The Financial Times reported that Frost also voiced “grave concern” about a proposal in a consultation document on the directive to allow agency staff to compare themselves hypothetically to an imaginary permanent employee, which he says would lead to “uncertainty, confusion and a huge increase in vexatious claims”.
Business groups fear the government may “gold-plate” the legislation by going further than the directive requires, the FT reported, since ministers will be under pressure to please unions, on which Labour depends for election funds.
Agency workers currently represent approximately 5% of the workforce but it is thought that the employment of temporary staff will increase in the early stages of economic recovery as firms test out demand.
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2009