Equal rights for Temporary Agency Workers!

Today the European Parliament adopted the Temporary Agency Workers directive that will, finally, give equal treatment at work to some of our most vulnerable workers.

This directive has been a long time coming. It has now been six years since the Commission first brought forward proposals for a Temporary Agency Workers directive. Under this directive, temporary workers will be given the same rights to pay, hours and holidays as their full-time colleagues. The number of temporary agency workers in the public and private sectors of the UK labour market has greatly increased in recent years. Temporary agency work contributes to a dynamic and flexible modern economy and can often be a bridge for long term unemployed to get back in the labour market. But agency workers should not be treated as second-class workers and agencies should not be able to distort the labour market by undercutting the wages and conditions of other workers.

Following the directive's first reading in the European Parliament, which approved it with the support of Labour MEPs, TAW was blocked in Council, where the main concerns have been over the length of the qualifying period before equal treatment rights apply. In May, the UK government reached an agreement with the unions and the CBI that would give equal treatment after 12 weeks, allowing a deal to be reached among European Employment ministers in the Council of Ministers in June.

The Parliament, in accepting this compromise, has now ensured that this directive will enter into law very swiftly. All of which is great news for the estimated 1.3 million British workers who will be protected by this legislation and a demonstration that our European common market is a social market that combines protection of workers' rights with flexible labour markets.

Finally, real progress for agency workers

I was delighted to hear today that the Government has reached an agreement with the TUC and the CBI on equal treatment for agency workers. This agreement, which would give agency workers equal treatment with permanent workers after 12 weeks, breaks a six year deadlock.

This proposed European directive has caused a great deal of controversy between Government, unions and industry. Of course, temporary agency work contributes to a dynamic and flexible modern economy and can often be a bridge for long term unemployed to get back in the labour market. But agency workers should not be treated as second-class workers and agencies should not be able to distort the labour market by undercutting the wages and conditions of other workers.

Indeed, support for the Temporary Agency Workers directive was one of the key planks of the 2004 Warwick Agreement between Government and unions and the impasse in resolving its future has caused great frustration for unions.

However, this agreement at UK level is not the end of the story. A further agreement will have to be reached in the Council of Ministers, hopefully at the next meeting of Employment ministers on the 9th and 10th of June. The directive will then return to the European Parliament (which had supported equal treatment for day one at first reading) for second reading, with a view to hitting the statute book in advance of next year’s European elections.

EU legislation on agency workers will establish one common set of rules for the common market and remove the possibility of having a multitude of divergent legislation from different Member States that would still leave the problem of transnational agencies undercutting wages as well as creating legal uncertainty. Domestic legislation would create as many problems as it would solve and today’s announcement demonstrates that Government’s priority is, rightly, to agree a compromise at European level.

Moreover, the debate on agency workers has demonstrated that will be clear dividing lines on European social legislation between Labour and the Conservatives at the next election. The Conservatives have already promised to restore Britain’s opt-out from the Social Chapter and bitterly oppose this directive which will protect some of the most vulnerable workers in the labour market. In contrast, today’s agreement shows that the Government is committed to a social Europe in which workers rights and social protection stand alongside economic growth and enterpreneurship.