A campaign to encourage recruiters to ‘blow the whistle’ on agencies’ poor or unethical practices will be launched later this year by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

The effort is not intended “to villify, or put anyone out of business,” REC managing director Gareth Osborne told Recruiter. Instead, the goal is to help poor performers upgrade their standard of service and improve their working practices. Complaints should be viewed in a positive light, he urged. Failing to complain allows bad practices to continue.

Osborne estimated that poor service providers constitute less than 5% of the UK’s recruiters, yet their actions taint the reputation of the rest of the industry. “I’ve become frustrated with this,” he said. “The reality of the industry is so much better than the image.”
The campaign’s details are still being worked out.

Osborne spoke to Recruiter about the whistleblowing campaign soon after the REC announced the expulsion of two members: corporate member Industrial Staff Management Ltd, based in Mansfield, and individual member Melek Gokcay, of Plymouth. Another corporate member, which was not identified, was reprimanded.

A Sunday tabloid newspaper last year alleged that Industrial Staff Management had exploited workers from Eastern Europe who came to the UK for agricultural jobs. Carol Scott, the REC’s professional standards manager, said the company had failed to co-operate with the REC’s attempts to investigate the allegations, forcing the trade body’s Professional Standards Committee to expel the agency.

Industrial Staff Management went into administration in February, and appears to have been succeeded by a new company, ISM International Recruitment Ltd. Its managing director, Robert Elliott, told Recruiter the REC had conducted “an incorrect expulsion of a company that is no longer trading”. He added: “I would like for them to talk to me.” 

Gokcay, owner of Pearls International Nursing Agency, was expelled following her conviction at Plymouth Crown Court in February of 15 charges of falsifying work permit applications to bring illegal entrants into the UK. The court ordered Gokcay to pay £1,000 for each of the 15 charges and a total of £40,000 towards prosecution and defence costs.

Gokcay, who claims she is innocent, told Recruiter she has applied to appeal her court conviction.