A warning that the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition Government is looking at ways to water down parts of new regulations aimed at protecting agency workers has come from Eversheds, one of the country’s leading law firms.
It comes after Prime Minister David Cameron kept quiet when asked questions by Labour leadership contender Ed Miliband on whether the Government will go ahead with full implementation of the European Union directive on agency workers’ rights. The directive effectively gives full employment rights to agency workers after 12 weeks.
Labour’s failure to take any action on protecting agency workers until the last few months of its time in government is now a source of regret for all five candidates standing for the leadership. Mr Cameron was one of five Tories who tabled a motion objecting to the new regulations when he was leader of the Opposition.
Mark Hammerton, a partner at Eversheds, said: “There is no doubt that the Government is walking something of a political knife edge with these regulations. Opportunity to challenge their legality and seek to scrap them altogether is lurking in the background but is likely to prove a political and legal step too far.
“Options for reform, therefore, rely on the wording of the European directive on which the regulations are based. In that context, time is not on the Government’s side as
the directive must be implemented by December 5 2011.” He then went on to suggest some loopholes.
“It does not mean that scope for change is completely thwarted. While setting a framework for compliance, the directive still allows flexibility of interpretation in many areas and therefore an opportunity for the Government to revisit certain definitions and requirements within the regulations.
“One can expect the Government to be scrutinising the definition of ‘pay’ within the regulations and making some adjustments here. The mechanism for accruing and ending the qualifying period for rights is also an area they will be reviewing.”
Mr Hammerton also suggested the Government might decide to “simplify” anti-avoidance measures and look again at who should be covered, with the obvious aim of restricting its scope.
