Temporary workers who earn more than three times the National Minimum Wage (NMW) should be excluded from the Temporary Agency Workers Directive (TAWD), the Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCo) has proposed.
If excluded from the TAWD, which will give temporary workers equal benefits as permanent staff after 12 weeks when it takes effect, well-paid contracts should also then retain the choice of whether to opt-out of the recruitment agency Conduct Regulations, APSCo is arguing.
The regulations limit the fees agencies can charge clients – for example, where organisations want to offer contractors permanent work. The regulations make agencies more susceptible to fraud by stipulating that agencies must pay contractors even where contractors fail to produce valid timesheets.
APSCo said that the regulations also impose increased obligations to obtain detailed information on both the position to be filled and the worker, before supplying workers.
Ann Swain, APSCo’s chief executive, says: “We feel that three times the NMW is about the right income level for temporary workers to be outside the scope of the Directive and therefore retain the opt-out. It would mean that about 90% of workers placed by APSCo members would remain almost entirely unaffected by both of these potentially very damaging legislative changes.”