TUC wants protection for agency workers

The TUC has published research which it claims "blows a hole" in the Government's case against new European rights for agency workers.

In its report 'Agency work in Britain today' the TUC claimed that the arguments used by Ministers and business lobbyists against giving agency workers equal pay and basic employment rights are "at worst far-fetched and at best unproven".

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 motive and the possible impact have caused a division among UK politicians, businesses and trade union leaders. Some have argued that 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.

Also, because the UK's agency structure is more mature than the rest of the EU, some see this measure as a handicap to the existing workings of a sector which neither needs nor wants the protection it affords.

The TUC has entered the debate by supporting the aims of the Directive and opposing moves to dilute its provisions.

Brendan Barber, TUC General Secretary Elect, said: "The moral case for treating temporary workers fairly is obvious. It should require overwhelming evidence to persuade the Government to oppose proper protection. Yet the arguments made by the employment agencies and business lobbyists do not stand up to scrutiny. The Government should drop its objections to the EU Directive now that business arguments have been shown to be the prejudices of vested interests, rather than objective fact."

The trade union body disputes claims that UK's industrial competitiveness and flexibility is down to what it describes as 'low paid and unprotected agency workers' or that agency work provides a stepping stone to employment.

In its report, the TUC makes the case that:

• Despite strong employment growth, temporary work has fallen in absolute terms and as a share of the workforce from its peak in 1998 (7.9 per cent) back to 1980s levels (6.2 per cent).
• Nearly half (49 per cent) of temporary workers are on fixed-term contracts, with pay and rights equal to permanent staff. Less than one in five temps (17 per cent) are agency workers.
• Agency work is growing across Europe, where agency workers are much better protected: France and the Netherlands are the market leaders.
• Employers say they use temps as short-term cover (59 per cent) and during short busy periods (40 per cent), not to cut costs.
• There is no evidence for the theory that agency work is a stepping-stone to employment for a marginal group in the workforce. Agency workers are no more likely than other temporary workers to have been unemployed (seven per cent), looking after a family (two per cent) or temporarily sick (one per cent) in the past year. And there are no grounds to assume agencies are less likely than employers to discriminate when allocating work.
• Across Europe between a third and two-thirds of temporary workers move on to permanent jobs within two years but these are most likely to be highly employable, educated workers aged 25 - 34 who have not been unemployed in the last five years.
• Nearly three-quarters (71 per cent) of agency workers will be with a single employer for less than a year, a third (33 per cent) will be in one job for no more than three months.
• The common practice of agencies charging host employers a fee to take on temporary agency workers on a permanent basis means that for many, agency work does not act as a stepping-stone to better work but a lock into a constant cycle of low paid jobs.
• Between 40 - 50 per cent of agency workers took the work because they could not find a permanent job. This compares with only 26 per cent for all temporary workers.
• Voluntary codes of practice and self-regulation will not raise standards in the UK agency worker market, as it is the most fragmented in Europe.

The text of the EU Temporary Agency Workers Directive is due to be discussed by the EU Council of Ministers. Some UK pressure groups want agency workers to have been in a job for a year before the rights apply instead of the six week period which is currently proposed.

Denmark, Ireland and Germany are also believed to be opposing the Directive fearing a negative impact on the cost and use of interim workers. Some reports have suggested that the UK has struck a deal with Germany in which the UK would lend its support to Germany on the Takeover Directive in return for the German support on this issue.

Freelancers

The position relating to freelancers is uncertain although most parties believe they would be exempt from its provisions. It is clear that the main aim of the Directive is to protect some of the most vulnerable workers, including those who are forced into temporary contracts by employers who are deprived of their legitimate employment rights by employers who want to avoid their responsibilities. However, there has been concern that the net might be cast too wide and cover those people who operate through agencies, but who neither want nor need protection in line with employment status.