Agreement reached on rights for agency workers

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform said the CBI and TUC had reached an agreement on how fairer treatment for agency workers in the UK should be promoted "while not removing the important flexibility that agency work can offer both employers and workers."

It means Britain's 1.4 million agency workers will be entitled to equal treatment on pay, overtime arrangements and holiday entitlement after 12 weeks in a given job, although the deal will not cover pensions or sick pay.

Equal treatment will be defined as at least the basic working and employment conditions that would apply if agency workers had been recruited directly by an employer.

The Government said it would now discuss with other European governments how to reach an agreement on a new agency workers directive that would enable the deal to be brought into legal effect in the UK. It added it hoped an EU agreement would be obtained in time to be implemented in the next parliamentary session.