The Agency Workers Directive “will be a boon to the staffing industry in Continental Europe”, according to the general manager Europe of Staffing Industry Analysts, a research company.

John Nurthen told recruiters at an Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) meeting in London that sectors such as the public sector which at present are not open to agencies in many Continental Europe countries would be opened up when the AWD came into effect in October 2011.

At present, staffing companies are prohibited from operating in the public or construction sectors in Belgium, Germany, Spain and Italy.
Nurthen explained that under the terms of the AWD, governments would have to justify to the European Commission why recruiters should continue to be denied access to these sectors. He said that where they were unable to do so, the AWD would force countries to open those sectors up on 1 October 2011 when it comes into force.

Nurthen predicted that France would be one of the first to benefit as it had already showed its willingness to change by opening up the public sector to agencies this summer. “The public sector is quite large in France, so this will be quite a benefit to the French staffing industry,” he said.