The Recruitment Employment Confederation (REC) has submitted its official response to draft regulations on the Agency Workers’ Directive (AWD), ahead of the close of the government’s consultation on how equal treatment measures for temporary workers can best be implemented in the UK.

Key areas covered in the REC response  to the draft regulations include:

·      Qualifying period and ad hoc assignments:  REC is calling for ad hoc assignments to be more sensibly dealt with by the regulations. Under the current proposals an agency driver, for example, who does a series of shifts occasionally returning to the same firm, could have multiple forms of equal treatment after service reaches 12 weeks at a number of  hirers which would cause confusion to the worker and also  administratively impossible to deal with.

·      Temp to perm fees:  The REC says it is opposed to including the word ‘reasonable’ within the text of the Conduct Regulations on temp to perm  fees as they say it gives hirers a basis from which to avoid paying  the fee they have signed up to.  

·      Exclusion of  the self-employed:  The REC is working to clarify wording in the regulations on this exclusion, but says it is in line with  government thinking on this matter.

·      Holiday pay: The REC says its decision to reflect the holiday pay entitlement of the hirer rather than use  the statutory minimum will add significant costs to hirers.  

·      Definition of pay: The REC says it will fight to  keep to the current proposal (with some small changes) as the Unions are  seeking for the proposed definition to be significantly extended.  

·      Liability: The REC will continue to push for clarification on hirers not indemnifying any losses due to failure to  establish equal treatment against the agency.

Director of external relations, Tom Hadley, says: “This is the final countdown in terms of ensuring that the EU Directive is workable  in the UK. In the pre-Budget report, the Chancellor explicitly referred to the importance of the  UK’s flexible labour market. The way that the AWD is implemented will be an acid test of the government’s commitment to protecting the viability of flexible working  options.”

The final regulations are due to go before Parliament in the new year. The government has committed to developing detailed guidance documents which the industry will be invited to feed into.