Temporary agency workers on long-term assignments face a skills divide in the workplace that risks excluding them from permanent employment, according to research by the TUC.

The research show that many workers are spending substantial periods of time working in temporary assignments, 54% are in continuous posts for over six months and 28% for more than a year.

However, far from empowering agency workers and giving them a 'stepping stone' to permanent employment, the TUC says spending long periods temping has the opposite affect and temps may find their career prospects compromised as a result.

Many of the companies that agency workers are placed with do not value investing in training, so temps are far less likely to benefit from training than directly employed staff. As a result they are becoming trapped in a career of low paid and insecure work, the lack of training leaving agency workers in a weak position to move on to better paid, more secure work.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber (pictured) says: “Far from providing a bridge to permanent work, temps are in danger of being less likely to move into better paid, more secure work, as their training at work is almost non-existent.

“Employers aren't bothering to train agency temps who they view as 'here today and possibly gone tomorrow' and not people who are really part of their organisations. Many employers and employment agencies deny that it is their responsibility to offer training to agency workers - so temps in long-term assignments are missing out, and finding themselves ill-equipped for the future.

“There is a simple solution - the EU Directive could give UK agency workers new rights to equal treatment from the first day they are taken on, ensuring they get the same access to training and development as permanent staff.”