Recruitment agencies need closer client ties

Closer ties between businesses and their recruitment agencies need forging when the EU Temporary Workers Directive is introduced, warns an employment law expert.

Studies suggest that the requirements of a Directive, entitling agency workers to the same conditions as permanent workers, will cost UK businesses around 500m in increased wages and holiday pay. Millions more could be lost
in employment tribunals.

Alan Lewis, employment law partner at George Davies Solicitors in Manchester, says loosely based arrangements with recruitment agencies could cost businesses dearly:

The Directive aims to ensure that agency workers are not discriminated against because of their temporary status. This means that they must be treated as employees by the agency that supplies them at the same time as receiving the same access to training and the same basic employment law
rights as everyone else in the EU.

Making sure that the process of appointing and recruiting people via an agency is legitimate and within the scope of the law is critical. Businesses will need to make checks on the agency that supplies them with workers to ensure they are not being denied their rights. Agencies in turn, must be
vigilant of businesses that are not entitling temporary workers to their rights, says Lewis.

A close link up between business management and recruitment agencies is essential in order to avoid falling foul of the law and ending up at an employment tribunal, he adds.