CBI Warns Over Impact Of EU Temp Laws

by Robin Pilgrim, LawAndTax-News.com, London

03 June 2003

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has warned this week that a proposed EU directive on temporary workers will decrease job opportunities for temps, and increase pressure on full time workers in the United Kingdom.

In a letter to the EU Commissioner responsible for the directive, Anna Diamantopoulou, sent as European employment ministers gathered in Luxembourg in an attempt to reach agreement on the draft legislation, the CBI's director-general, Digby Jones explained that:

'The directive is a classic example of the European Commission preventing countries from developing labour markets in ways that reflect their different circumstances. Employers in some countries will be relatively unaffected because temping agencies operate differently, but the UK would be badly hit.' He continued:

'If the EU is serious about economic reform it should not be trying to drag the UK's flexible and successful labour market in the direction of other countries where they have high unemployment.'

Under the terms of the draft directive, temporary workers would be given the same rights and pay as full time employees after they had been employed for six weeks. Both the CBI and the UK government have lent their support to proposals to extend this period to a year's employment.

According to a survey on the issue, conducted by employment agency, Pertemps in conjunction with the CBI, some 47% of employers have said that they will take on fewer temporary staff if the law is adopted.

However, trade union groups such as the TUC have dismissed the CBI's concerns, dubbing the survey: 'just another report dreamed up by the cry-wolf employer research department'.

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