EU measure singles out UK for damage

A senior Conservative MP has accused Europe of singling out Britain for 'unique damage' regarding its plans to issue worker protection measures to temporary workers.

Conservative DTI spokesman Tim Yeo talks to UKTECH

The Agency Workers' Directive is an EU measure which will impose employment protection measures on agency workers. Its genesis relates to an EU desire to protect some of Europe's most exploited workers who are forced to work on short-term, agency contracts in order to circumvent the existing worker protection measures for employees.

However, the net has been thrown so wide that it will also impact on the UK's flexible workforce who choose to work as self-employed and use agencies to find them contracts.

Tim Yeo, Shadow DTI spokesman, said: "We have been opposed to this once we realised not only how it damages the position of a large number of individuals but also that it hits Britain much harder than the other countries in the European Union.

"Britain is by far the largest victim of this particular Directive. Here is an EU measure which doesn't just damage business across the whole of the EU, it particularly damages business in this country."

Some EU countries have used the temporary worker status to avoid their own draconian employment protection measures. This has particularly affected the lower-paid positions such as cleaning and basic administrative work. The EU move has been led by the Left-wing of Europe who wanted to close this loophole which allowed these sectors of the work-force to be by-passed for employment rights.

However, the freelance market in the UK is much more mature than in many other EU countries and, rather than the work-force being exploited, provides a flexible labour market which is the chosen method of working for individuals, agents and clients.

Mr Yeo said: "One of our strengths in the 1980s and 1990s, which has helped our competitive position internationally has been our flexibility in the labour market in this country. If we allow Directives like this to destroy that flexibility, which this measure inevitably does, we put ourselves at a disadvantage.

"In some ways where European Directives make life difficult for all businesses on an equal basis - that is a pity, but it doesn't particularly undermine Britain. The trouble with this measure is that it does damage Britain uniquely and it exposes the flaw in the one-size fits all approach to making employment law. You cannot reflect the local conditions and differences, if you have a single law for the whole of the EU."