EU Temps' Charter causes industry-wide condemnation

A proposed EU directive that seeks to give Britain's temporary workers the same pay and rights as permanent staff after a six-week continuous work period, has met with fierce criticism from industry representatives.

The directive, which has a working title of the 'Temps' Charter,' recently set alarm bells ringing throughout the UK recruitment industry after it was adopted by the European Commission.

British industry representative bodies have since accused the EU of operating under a 'one size fits all' ethos, which they argue is incompatible with the UK and its 270,000 temporary workers, worth £21 billion.

The working directives, of which the 'Temps' Charter' is a part, were originally formed by the EU under the social chapter of the Maastricht treaty, after talks between employers and unions broke down last year.

The Department of Trade and Industry told UKTECH it was currently in talks with the EC to get the six-week time period extended, but would not elaborate as to what sort of timescales it was proposing.

A spokesman said: "We appreciate the enormous contribution temps and agencies make to the UK and think that any legislation of this type should properly reflect the importance of temporary workers' flexibility."

John Cridland, Deputy Director-General of the Confederation of British Industry, said: "This proposal claims to be about employment protection for agency staff. But in reality it will undermine opportunities for people who want to do temporary work.

"We fully support the principle of equal treatment but European law must not damage our labour market. Requiring firms to match the terms and conditions of temps with permanent staff would actually reduce temping opportunities.

"At the moment when firms take on agency temps they do not get involved in the details of a temp's contract, but under these proposals that would not be possible, making it harder to take people on. No-one, least of all agency temps, gains from this.

"A six-week qualifying period before equal treatment rights apply is a wholly inadequate response because most temp assignments last longer than this. It would only help firms covering holidays and would remove flexibility for employers covering for vacancies and maternity leave for example."

David Lennan, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, called for the six-week qualification period to be extended to 18 months. He said: "We cannot afford the EU Directive to restrict short-term agency work opportunities. Employers will need to rely more and more on agency workers to cover absences resulting from the increased maternity and paternity rights. These proposals will fly in the face of anything that the Government could do on helping small firms in particular to manage absences.

"The EU Directive should not cover temporary workers, who work for a company for a period of say 18 months, which would allow employers to cover for new extended maternity leave of up to one year. Beyond that period of time, an agency worker is effectively fulfilling a permanent position, and therefore the Directive could be much more justified."

Stephanie James, a BCC Policy Advisor, advised on what the proposals would mean for contractors. She said: "If a professional contractors group pays another individual in the same manner as an agency does to temps (i.e. salary and NICs, etc...) then it could well fall under this directive. However, if someone works as self-employed, then the directive will not affect him.

We will be looking into the formal text for the 'Temps' Charter' very carefully once it is published and intend to put some serious lobbying into it. We are very concerned about the way the EU is affecting UK labour market flexibility. Other EU countries have completely different cultures on the labour market and feel that the UK is exploiting their workers. However, they don't seem to understand that many atypical workers work part-time, fixed term contracts, on a temporary basis because they want to have the flexibility of extra holidays, for example, or to fit in with family or social commitments."

John Monks, General Secretary of the Trade Union Confederation, was alone in welcoming the proposals. He said: "This is an overdue step after the employers at European level had blocked an agreement. There are still concerns that the proposals leave worrying loopholes.

"British business needs agency workers to provide short-term cover and some British workers need agencies to find them short-term work. Too many businesses are using the lack of protection for agency workers to keep permanent parts of their business going with agency workers on worse terms and conditions.

"Employers will whinge about 'red-tape' from Brussels but short-term savings don't always make long-term business sense."

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Richard Powell, UKTECH