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Dear Colleague
Implementation of the Agency Workers Directive in the UK - Branch & Individual Submissions to BERR Consultation Paper
At the Agency Forum held at CWU HQ yesterday a presentation was given to branches on how to make a submission to the BERR consultation document on the implementation of the Agency Workers Directive. This is a critical stage in the union’s campaign to bring about equal treatment for agency workers. Stakeholders have until 31 July 2009 to respond, following which a later consultation exercise will take place in Autumn 2009 in the form of draft regulations.
The Government have indicated that they plan to lay regulations before the next General Election but have not indicated when the new rights will come into effect. The Agency Workers Directive must be implemented in the UK at the latest by November 2011.
It will be the intention of the CWU to make a stand alone submission to all areas of the consultative document. However, the consultation process allows for individuals or union branches to make their own submission, and in order to maintain pressure we are now asking branches and members to make a response.
This can be done in several ways as follows;
Agency Workers Directive Policy Team
BERR
1 Victoria Street
London SW1H 0ET
Tel: 020 7215 5963
Fax: 020 7215 0168
Whilst all areas will be covered by the CWU main submission we are not asking the branches or individuals members to necessarily respond to all parts of the document as it is extremely lengthy and in parts complex. In order to maximise participation and to assist with the process we have prepared a CWU Model Response document with model answers to key areas of the document that affect our agency members the most.
These key areas are:
- Working time and holiday entitlement - Q6 & Q7
- Pay -Q9 & Q10
- Defining the 12 week qualifying period -Q12 &Q13
- Breaks between assignments - Q13, Q14 & Q15
- Permanent contracts - Q16, Q17 & Q18
- Pregnant women and new mothers -Q20 & Q21
- Establish equal treatment - given job -Q34
- Liability in relation to an equal treatment claim -Q36 & Q37
- Information on equal treatment for work -Q39
- Dispute resolution and Employment Tribunal -Q42
- Entry into force -Q45
The area that the CWU is most concerned about relates to where the Government is considering whether there are reasons to move away from equal treatment applying to all agency workers and not apply these terms on the specific issue of pay if an agency workers has a permanent contracts see pages 27 &28 of the BERR doc. If the Government do derogate this will exempt the majority of agency members that we represent from equal treatment on all pay related rates.
Therefore a response to Q16, Q17 & Q18 is extremely important.
I am attaching a number of documents which will aid branches and individuals in making a response to the BERR consultation document found in Annex A.
These are as follows;
Link to the BERR consultation document “ Employment agencies. Implementation of the Agency Workers Directive: a consultation paper
CWU model Response document
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