Is October 2011 a workable deadline for agency worker changes?

The UK government has set itself an October 2011 deadline to implement law changes for agency workers, aimed at given them a "fairer deal".

It has explained this cut-off point will allow these types of staff and their employers to make the necessary alterations to meet their new obligations.

This includes new rights to holidays and pay equal to that of permanent employees after a 12-week period, a move that could end up adding thousands to organisations' wage bills.

Some commentators may believe the timeframe for the EU Agency Workers Directive is too short for such financial changes to made, especially as the UK is in the midst of a recession and cost-cutting and pay freezes are very much at the top of the agenda.

Discussing the move, business minister Pat McFadden remarked: "This allows us to implement the directive in this country in a way which gives fair treatment to agency workers and maintains labour market flexibility."

Other provisions are set to be offered to agency staff as part of the legislative changes, including on-site child care and parking, along with further information about full-time jobs.

The latter of these could be a pertinent topic for Ford and the United Auto Workers body in the US – where a deal was recently struck to give temporary staff the chance to be taken on full-time.

PA Consulting Group's Jonathon Hogg commented: "The estimates as to how many agency workers there are in the UK vary hugely from as little as 260,000 to as many as 1.25 million workers.  They fill a vital role in meeting the short term needs of companies and have been regarded as a cheaper alternative to permanent hires.

"To date they cannot claim unfair dismissal when sacked without notice or good cause and have no entitlement to redundancy pay. They have no right to take maternity, paternity or parental leave. Nor do they have the right to paid time off for antenatal care. They also have no right to a written statement of main terms and conditions of employment. And anyone engaged for a period of less than three months is not eligible to claim statutory sick pay.  Given this, it is important that these workers, who play a vital ongoing role in our economy, are better protected even at the cost of a little labour flexibility."

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