The coalition government has confirmed that there will be no last minute changes to the Agency Worker Regulations despite David Cameron’s attempts to water them down.
A spokesman at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, told the Telegraph that the law, which comes into force on 1 October and entitles temps to equal pay and benefits to permanent staff after they have worked for the same employer for 12 weeks, will not differ from when it was laid before Parliament last year.
He also denied that there was yet another “last minute review” taking place within his department in order to assess which elements of the law could be diluted.
The statements came following reports that David Cameron had hired EU law expert Martin Howe QC to seek legal advice on how to go about watering down the legislation. The alleged goal was to remove some of the provisions laid down by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills when implementing the European directive.
The Prime Minister was said to be concerned about the Regulations’ potentially negative impact on the UK’s fragile economy.
A recent survey suggested that nearly 500,000 temps could lose their jobs before Christmas as businesses moved to sack them in order to avoid having to conform to the new law. The legislation is expected to cost employers some £1.8 billion per annum to comply with.
Mark Hammerton, partner at law firm Eversheds, said: “Our advice to hirers and the agencies themselves is not to panic. Many aspects of the Regulations could be clearer, but the UK Government has so far opted to produce guidance rather than change the Regulations themselves.”
While lawyers tended to get excited by some of the “interesting” legal points raised by the legislation, the key commercial issue for employers was to understand where contractual cost and risk lay. “We, therefore, suggest that parties review their commercial contracts (to the extent they have not yet done this”, Hammerton said.
