The UK is in some disagreement with other EU states with regard to a maximum 48 hour working week under the Working Time Act. The UK, unlike other member states allows workers to opt out of such legislation, something which other member states want to UK to cease.

Apparently the UK has been offered a deal by the EU Commission. If the UK accepts the proposed Agency Workers Directive with similar rights accruing to agency workers after just 6 weeks of an assignment, the UK will be allowed to retain  the opt out  from the maximum 48 hour working week.

Whether the UK will be minded to accept this deal remains to be seen, the trade unions continue to press for government action on agency worker rights. However commentators including the REC and Lawspeed also recognise the potential damage to UK industry from such a short qualifying period. In reality a deal like this could be highly damaging to recruiters.  For most recruiters the number of agency workers  working in excess of an average 48 hour working week  will be less than the number of agency workers placed on assignments of more than 6 weeks.

A few weeks ago it was also suggested that an alternative deal may be afoot. That is that the Agency Workers Directive will be abandoned as a centralised EU directive in favour of member states each making their own rules, provided that the general principles are applied. If this were to be followed the UK could be forced to accept that it has to make regulations giving agency workers equal rights after 6 weeks to comparable employees.

We understand that the next meeting of the EU council on this matter will be taking place on 5th & 6th December