20 June 2005

Last week was National Temporary Workers week, and with 1.4 million registered temps in the UK they are becoming an increasingly common source of labour for many organisations. With the right to request flexible working due to be offered to more workers, and longer maternity leave on the way too, there will be more and more gaps in the workforce that employers need to fill. With the holiday season just around corner, many companies will already be planning replacement cover for their share of the 26 million Britons who take a summer break.

Of course staff will perform better if they are managed properly, with time invested in identifying their needs and motivating them, and this applies equally to temps. If temps are perceived as a quick fix, their impact on the bottom line may fall short of your expectations. But how far is it safe to go towards integrating your temps into your organisation by replicating initiatives usually the preserve of permanent staff? This is an area fraught with difficulty, with employment status issues continuing to present challenges to both the courts and employers alike. Cases such as Dacas v Brook Street Bureau (2004) and more recently Cable & Wireless plc v Muscat (2005) provide the latest guidance. We considered the issues raised by these cases in our weekly article on 16 May 2005.

However, there is a lot you can do without running the risk of a tribunal claim. Many temps complain that their assignments are lonely experiences, with no-one even bothering to learn their name. They are often landed with boring and unpleasant tasks that no self-respecting employee would go near, with little explanation of how to get the job done. A friendly welcome, clear concise instructions and regular feedback, can go a long way to making your temp feel valued and getting the best out of them. Many temps accept that they are not going to be the "new best friend" of person at the next desk, or get all the plum jobs. In fact, many value the variety of meeting different people and experiencing different working environments. It also a great way for new entrants to the job market to get around that requirement of so many job adverts, "experience required".

Despite the flexibility, tempting offers, few temps get paid sick pay or have pension rights. This makes long-term temping an unattractive option for many. This could all change if the proposed Temporary Workers Directive becomes law. The main principle of the Directive is that conditions for temps would be no less favourable than for permanent staff. Organisations would have to offer the same pay and benefits to temps. This would increase costs dramatically – particularly where generous benefits are offered. Temps would have unfair dismissal and redundancy rights too.

There is some debate over how long a temp should have worked on an assignment before qualifying for the equal rights the Directive promises. The qualifying period as currently drafted is 6 weeks. The UK Government favours 6 months, but even this is a concession from the 12 months they were previously proposing. Having a qualifying period will create a two-tier temporary workforce, with employers having one rate of pay and procedures for temps that do not qualify for the Directive’s protection, and another for those that do. This will add bureaucracy as well as cost to the process of hiring temps.

Most businesses will be relieved to hear that this legislation is some way off, as there needs to be a considerable amount of negotiating at European level before the Directive is approved. The earliest anticipated date for the Directive coming into force in the UK is likely to be 2007. A survey carried out last year revealed that many businesses would reduce their use of temps by nearly half if they had to comply with the Directive. It is a shame that rules designed to protect temps may have the effect of limiting their use so dramatically.