EU Temporary (Agency) Workers Directive

30 October 2008

Approval by EU Parliament

On 22 October, the European Parliament voted to adopt the Temporary (Agency) Workers Directive. This was the last hurdle the Directive had to overcome, and it now only has to go through routine formalities before passing into EU law. EU member states, including the UK, have three years to transcribe the Directive into national law.

The Directive gives agency workers the same basic employment rights as equivalent permanent employees of the client. These rights include equal pay, and statutory holiday and sick pay. However, they do not cover occupational benefits such as pension. Mimicking Social Chapter arrangements more generally found elsewhere in the EU, the UK’s Social Partners – deemed to be the CBI and the TUC – have agreed that agency workers will be given these rights after 12 weeks on an assignment.

It now remains to be seen how the UK government transcribes the provisions of the Directive into UK law. There is widespread concern that the legislation introduced should not impact the ‘high end’ of the temporary recruitment market, such as Interims. This is echoed in the Institute’s members’ survey this year – every respondent said that, if they were covered by the Directive, they would wish to be able to opt out from its provisions – perhaps something similar to the opt out available under The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003.

There have been suggestions that, given the current state of the economy, the government should take the full three years available before burdening businesses with the extra costs that the Directive will entail. Nevertheless, even if the government does delay, it cannot put off implementation indefinitely.

The IIM will continue to monitor the progress, and to make representations as necessary.