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EU pay plan would cost £635m
Page 5
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• A European Union directive that will force employers to give temporary workers the same rights as full-time staff would cost business about £635m a year, according to research undertaken by the government.
The proposed legislation says employers will have to offer agency drivers and other temporary staff the same pay and conditions once they have been working for that firm for six weeks—something that would hit small business particularly hard.
According to the government's recent calculations, 1366m would go on extra pay, the rest would be accounted for by extra administration, annual leave, sick pay and more employment tribunal applications, it says.
Although the government has argued against the directive's introduction, other EU countries are pushing for its Introduction.
The UK has suggested that only workers who had been working for a year should be entitled to the same benefits as full-time workers, but has so far been over-ruled at every turn. Susan Anderson of the CBI says it is encouraging 'that the government has recognised that the directive is flawed" but suggests that its own assessment underestimates just how damaging the directive would be.
"It doesn't reflect the fall in demand for temps that would result from the extra red tape and costs involved in employing them," she says.
Such a move by the EU would be disastrous for a haulage industry already trying to come to terms with the impact of the Working Time Directive.