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7th August 2009
After weeks of hard work with the Institute of Directors (IOD) the message that we have been attempting to publish that the government intends to massively gold plate the Agency Workers Directive has finally hit the national press.
In an article on 23rd July the FT reported on concerns that the government intends to go way beyond the intention of the EU Parliament when implementing the Directive in the UK. ARC has been in discussion with numerous stakeholders on this issue, which neither the government nor some recruiter representatives seemed keen to reveal. Adrian Marlowe read out the key text of the Directive at a BIS consultation meeting earlier last month and asked the government spokesperson to explain why the industry was not being consulted on this crucial issue.
In addition ARC has been pressing the REC to object to the gold plating in its response within the consultation. Apparently following discussions with the IOD and some of its own members who had become aware of the government plan the REC now proposes to refer to it. Thank goodness for that!
ARC will continue to work with key stakeholders until there is an open and transparent process and the most important issues have been properly explored. Discussions with recruiters indicates a very significant support for ARC’s work in this regard and this has lead in recent weeks to a fourfold increase in membership, pushing it to over 50 agencies.
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