Equal treatment for agency workers

May 20^th, 2008 may be a day that will be remembered as marking an end of an era of the financially viable temporary worker after a government move to resolve the issue of the Agency Workers Directive. After 12 weeks in a given job there will be entitlement to equal treatment. The Government also proposes to move to reach agreement in relation to the formal implementation of the Directive with European partners. The measures will increase costs due to the likelihood that there will have to be pay evaluations in relation to equal entitlement with permanent workers. This will be a costly exercise to smaller organisations that use agency workers. The outcome of these measures is likely to be a reduced use of agency workers, as they are replaced by short-term contract arrangements or more use of longer and effectively monitored probationary periods. View the results of a members’ vote on this issue: http://www.fpb.org/news/2042/page/1/Members_vote_on_employment_issues.htm