The Agency Workers Directive that's voted into law with the EU finally takes effect inside the UK in October this season but employers and recruitment agencies have declared that there exists still some confusion about definitions and exactly how it is going to work.
The law was designed to protect workers who're thought to be susceptible to exploitation also to give them some of the same employment conditions after 12 weeks of service as workers who will be permanent.
It covers pay (including shift and overtime allowances), working conditions and holidays, as long as they are supervised and managed by their hirer. It won't cover the advantages permanent employees get, such as sick pay, pensions, redundancy pay.
Where agency staff is employed on the permanent basis by their umbrella company or agency or temporary work agency, have a very permanent contract with the agency and receive pay in-between assignments rather than through the hiring company they may not be covered by the new regulations.
They must make sure they take reasonable steps to find suitable employment for that worker knowning that it can be wanted to them as well as paying them during periods when they're not employed and never at less than the national minimum wage.
Agency workers is probably not only unskilled "blue collar" workers. http://kingkonglabour.com.au/gallery/ cover the complete spectrum including those working in agriculture and food production to temporary secretarial staff, IT consultants and engineers.
As businesses continue to try to regulate cash flow and costs as a direct consequence of the 2008 Great Recession it's reasonable to claim that they will take advantage from the flexibility to be able to hire people only once they need them reducing the overheads connected with employing staff permanently. The UK already employs more agency workers than somewhere else inside EU.
Using temporary clerical, administrative and secretarial workers has long been an integral part of UK employment, and it can be also common to employ IT and computer specialists on fixed contracts.
In the latest directory employment, for February 2011, the amount of temporary workers had shown their greatest rise since 2007, particularly within the IT and computing sector. Many well-established specialist recruitment agencies exists that are experienced and skilled in sourcing the best staff over these skills for employers, and also more widely for farm, factory and driving contracts.
Like the UK's Confederation of British Industry (CBI) the recruitment agency industry body, the REC, may be associated with consultation using the government within the introduction of the new regulations and so on producing proper guidelines for agencies to know what's involved.
The REC has asserted it won't believe the modern regulations will use a significant impact on impact on the flexibility that temporary, contract and interim work provides to employers in most sectors with the UK economy.
For the new rules to function smoothly after October 1, however, both parties will need to comprehend the new rules and who's actually responsible for ensuring these are correctly carried out.
Copyright (c) 2011 Alison Withers