AGENCY workers will have to wait for another two years before they are given fair treatment.

The Government have announced that changes in legislation will not be introduced until October 2011 to “give agencies time to prepare”.

Business Minister Pat McFadden said: “This work is a priority for the Government, and the Prime Minister has said that we will get the implementing legislation on the Statute Book in this Parliament. The regulations will come into force on 1st October 2011 giving the sectors using agency workers time to prepare for this change.”

He added: “We need flexibility, opportunity and fairness. Most people would agree that it is not right that an agency worker can spend months even years on a job while always being paid less than a permanent employee doing the same thing.”

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills have now launched a consultation document on the draft Agency Worker Regulations.

It proposes that agency workers will qualify for equal treatment with permanent staff after 12 weeks. They will also be entitled to holiday pay - but not sick pay, redundancy entitlement, notice pay or membership of a pension scheme.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “The Government is right to introduce new rights for agency workers, but it is extremely disappointing that temps will have to wait so long for these rights to come into effect.

“Agency workers are even more in need of protection during a recession. Vulnerable workers are always the first to suffer when times are hard.

“A recent TUC poll revealed abuse and bad treatment for a significant proportion of agency workers. It showed that many rogue employers are using the lack of employment rights and insecurity of agency workers to treat temps badly - to pay them less, to give them less holiday pay, to get out of paying them redundancy or maternity pay, and to neglect their training and development.

“Agency workers must have the right to genuine equal treatment on pay, including basic pay, bonuses, and redundancy pay, and to equal treatment on holiday pay and the ability to take time off, and working time.

“The Government must treat the introduction of the new regulations as a priority, to ensure that agency workers are protected and that the exploitation of temps by rogue agencies ends as soon as possible.

“The new laws must provide real protection for the UK’s hundreds of thousands of agency workers, and any loopholes which would allow unscrupulous employers to avoid the law and to undercut reputable firms must be closed. This includes measures to prevent the use of bogus self-employment arrangements to avoid new rights for agency workers.”

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