To a petrol head like me, AWD usually means ‘all wheel drive’ and frankly I was happier while that was the case. Now it refers to something I’m sure everyone has heard of; even if not everyone appreciates it.

I’m referring to the Temporary Agency Workers Directive, of course, handed down to us by our masters in Brussels and about to be interpreted by our own bunch of mendacious Klingons (sic). If you require a reasoned and balanced argument on this wrong-headed and spiteful piece of legislation, then you’d best look elsewhere because I make no bones about the fact that I think it is plain wrong… as you might have guessed.

This nasty piece of legislation, which will licence fraud, fix our fees (when we are allowed to charge them) and make it harder and more expensive to utilise the most flexible workers, has been more than six years coming. The government is about to close the door on the consultation period and to come up with how they think it should work in the UK. This is the same government of course who have absolutely no idea how our industry works and how much pain and damage this will cause.

Several brave souls have attempted to suggest sensible amendments that would help (notably the three-times National Minimum Wage exclusion); many others, sadly, have just rolled over saying we have to accept it, which is worse in my view than complacency. What happened to doing the right thing? Unfortunately, regardless of any opinions, it will all come down to politics and I imagine many of you share my views that it is hard to imagine how awful that might be!

Nobody denies that vulnerable workers should be protected but the assumption that anyone working as a contractor, interim or temp is automatically vulnerable is crass. Flexibility is the most important aspect regarding labour usage (in the economic sense) and restricting it in this way will damage UK plc, not just our industry.

Graham Palfery-Smith has been in the recruitment industry for almost 30 years

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