AWD - 2011

One of our management team Karen Dykes spent Friday in Leeds at the fourth Agency Summit to discuss the EU Agency Workers Directive draft regulations.

This Directive will give agency workers equal treatment to permanent staff 12 weeks into an assignment. It has been recognised since these regulations were first discussed that there is going to be a huge impact on the recruitment industry – we’re going to be in the frontline of its delivery.

We now know it’s going to be implemented on October 1, 2011.

The good news is that its introduction has been delayed until then. The over-riding feeling among agencies is that this legislation is going to stall demand for temps as companies manage without rather than incurring the costs involved in implementing the new rules. With the economy as it is if that had happened now it could have proved disastrous.

The other win as far as we’re concerned is the second consultation period which the government has agreed to before the legislation is rubber stamped early next year.

It’s another eight weeks grace for us to lobby parliament and our MPs about the nitty gritty of the document. There is a lot of ambiguity within it and some loopholes which must be dealt with.

We will be continuing to work with the REC and other agencies to ensure that when the final document is produced it is both realistic and workable. And once it’s been through parliament and is on the statute books we will be working with our clients to ensure that its implementation is as smooth as possible.