The government have this week revealed a new deal between businesses and trade unions which is to give agency and temporary workers employment parity with permanent workers after 12 weeks at work.

The measures should come in to force during the next session of Parliament, provided the government is able to ensure that agency workers are able to opt out of the Working Time Directive. This requires action in Europe to ensure that any EU directive includes the provision of an opt out.

The agreement comes after months of debate in Parliament and between businesses and trade unions in order to thrash out a deal which would prevent workers from being exploited, but also allow UK businesses to benefit from a flexible workforce. The business secretary, John Hutton, claimed that the measures would “give people a fair deal at work without putting their jobs at risk or cutting off a valuable route into employment”. The Confederation of British Industry, which was at the negotiating table with other employers’ groups, described the agreement as the “least worst option”.

In an effort to ensure that agency and temporary workers are still an attractive option for employers, the deal does not provide them with Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) or pension benefits after the 12 week mark. Such workers would have to work as long as permanent workers in order to benefit from full maternity rights, but it is not clear when such workers would be able to claim SSP.

Impactt welcomes this new deal, and hopes that the implementation of the measures will be timely and effective. It remains to be seen how the government will prevent employers from evading the regulations, although the agreement includes ‘anti-avoidance measures’. The risk that labour users will simply dismiss agency workers after 11 weeks and 6 days remains a concern. Perhaps the model of the Gangmasters Licensing Authority could be used to empower the Employment Agencies Inspectorate, in order to license and prosecute employment agencies who breach any new and existing rules, and regulate the conditions of workers when they are working.

The Guardian has speculated that the measures have been forced through a scared and meek Labour government, eager to gain approval from voters who are edging away from them in the polls, in a similar way to the implementation of equal pay legislation whilst Harold Wilson’s government was ‘on the ropes’.

We believe that it is a troubling thing when the rights of workers are only defended by a Labour government during times when they are desperate for political approval.  However, as a pragmatic bunch, we also commend the trade unions for standing their ground and utilising the weakness of the government in order to protect the rights of an under-represented group of workers, which has for many years supported many industries in the UK such as agriculture, hospitality and construction.

 This comes only two weeks after agency workers’ rights were dealt a blow in the form of a judgement in the Court of Appeal, which confirmed a prior ruling that agency workers cannot claim an employment relationship between worker and labour user, regardless of the amount of time they may have worked in a particular role. 

Gordon Brown’s support of a new Temporary and Agency Workers’ Commission seeks to bring together two parties (the TUC and CBI) that have historically had different views on the provision of rights to temporary and agency workers in the UK.  Both parties have taken radically different stances towards the Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill which is due to have its second reading in Parliament later this month.   The Bill, which is sponsored by Andrew Miller MP, seeks to extend the rights of agency workers towards equality with those of permanent employees.  

This appears to be a significant turn around by the Labour government that had blocked the Temporary Agency Work Directive which has been stalled in the EU Parliament since 2002, largely due to the actions of Britain and Ireland. The Directive’s future now looks much rosier thanks to the fact that France takes over the presidency of the EU later this year.  

The TUC has championed the opinion that the labour force should be de-casualised and that all workers should have equal employment rights. The CBI has argued that the blocking of the Directive in the EU was a cause for celebration and that millions of jobs in the UK would have been lost if the Directive had been ‘bullied through Brussels’.  

The step by Brown is said to represent a move away from the ‘Blairite’ policies of the Labour party, and a return to their core values, which include equal treatment. The commission is set to establish a process to identify comparable full time workers and therefore determine what equal pay and conditions would look like for agency workers, and how this might work under any future EU directives. 

However, some MPs and unionists have condemned the move, arguing that it is yet another stalling tactic on the part of the government. They argue that the commission will appear to support the Temporary and Agency Workers (Equal Treatment) Bill, but will actually prevent it becoming law, and will waste time on assessing the current rights of such workers, which have long been known to be inadequate and open to exploitation. Today’s Guardian reports that union leaders fear that the formation of the commission is being pushed forward in order to prevent a likely backbench rebellion on the Bill.  

Impactt has promoted the rights of all workers, including agency and temporary workers, through our work conducting assessments and training.  Much of our work on this issue has focused on mediating towards the provision of permanent jobs for long term agency workers, and ensuring that the reliance on agency labour is kept to a minimum, covering seasonal peaks in production, holidays and sick absences. This practice allows long term agency workers to move into permanent positions with full employment rights, and allows companies to utilise a relatively casual workforce whilst increasing their permanent capacity.   

By adopting a proactive approach to the use of agency labour, workplaces can ensure that they minimise the likelihood of exposure to media campaigns and negative coverage as a result of differential treatment of staff on their site.  Once the commission is established, Impactt encourages all interested parties to submit responses in order to ensure a fully effective process.  We also keenly await reports on the upcoming second reading of the Bill on Friday and believe that the increased attention that the two Parliamentary measures, and the EU Directive, are bringing to the debate will only reinforce the message to employers; and thereby benefit a section of the labour force that has been largely invisible for some time.