New legislation expected which affects all agency and gig workers
(Read time: 1 min)
In June 2019 the European Council agreed upon the Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions (the “Directive”). The Directive is designed to improve working conditions for all agency and gig workers across the European Union by increasing the level of transparency and predictability in working arrangements.
How will this affect the UK?
Directives do not automatically become law in EU member states. Instead, member states are granted a “grace period” during which they must implement necessary measures to achieve the directives desired result.
Though we’re set to leave the European Union later this year, at which time directives will no longer apply to us, a large portion of the Directive is likely to be transposed into law in the UK as it mirrors the suggestions made in Matthew Taylor’s Good Work Plan.
What does the directive require?
A large portion of the directive focuses on ensuring that workers are engaged under clear and transparent terms. In the UK we already have significant legislation attributing to this, so this won’t result in any ground-breaking changes.
However, the following points of the directive could result in significant changes to the way recruitment agencies and businesses operate.
- Under certain circumstances, there will be a rebutted presumption of employment rights. Essentially the word of the worker will be accepted unless the employer can demonstrate otherwise. As a result, it will be more difficult for an employer to defend a claim and, I suspect, we will see a rise in claims as a result.
- Holiday pay will be monitored more closely, particularly in situations where a worker leaves without claiming the holiday pay that they have accrued. This will be a blow to recruitment agencies who currently take abandoned holiday pay as a profit.
- The directive will limit all probation periods to a maximum of 6 months which will reduce the ability of some staffing companies to avoid certain employment rights which only come to fruition after the probationary period.
Recruitment agencies should begin looking into the changes now to establish how their business will be affected. You can seek further advice from a specialist law firm or business advisory service.
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