Agency Workers Directive comes in

Employers remain likely to use temporary workers despite the fact that it could increase their costs after the Agency Workers Directive comes in tomorrow, according to research.

Employers remain likely to use temporary workers despite the fact that it could increase their costs after the Agency Workers Directive comes in tomorrow, according to research.

Recruitment firm Reed calculates that had the regulations been in place over the last year it would have put an extra five per cent on companies' pay costs. The Directive grants equal employment rights over pay and conditions to temporary workers who have been in the same post for over 12 weeks. Reed says over 30 per cent of businesses use temporary workers for assignments of over 12 weeks.

Research by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation has found that only 17 per cent of employers are planning to reduce their use of temps over the next three months while 22 per cent are likely to increase numbers. Nevertheless, 21 per cent of employers said that the regulations would have a serious or very serious impact on their business. 

Another survey for recruiter Robert Half shows companies are increasing their use of temps.

Neil Owen, Director of Robert Half's London operations says: “Despite continued regulatory change, organisations across the UK are increasingly reliant on agency workers to carry out business critical processes. Areas such as finance, operations management and IT have experienced a steady increase in hiring levels over the past 12 months for temporary and interim staff. Our research shows that in London alone, 44% of finance and accounting departments have hired between 1-15 temporary staff, with 49% of companies planning to use the same number over the next 12 months.

“With the challenging business environment amidst continued global economic uncertainty, some hiring managers are taking advantage of the knowledge and skills that temporary staff can bring to a company’s bottom line. By continuing to capitalise on the readily available and highly trained temporary market, businesses can adjust more easily and quickly to workload variations, and bring in specialists with the required experiences to run particular programmes.”

 





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