12. Putting it right for agency workers (resolution)

Greater Liverpool and Knowsley Branch

That this meeting of RCN Congress welcomes the adoption of the Temporary Agency Workers Directive and urges Council to press the Government to fully implement the Directive to ensure that health care workers have their employment rights secured in legislation.

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Progress report

Council Committee: MRC
Committee decision: Covered by existing work
Council member/other member/stakeholder involvement: Tracey Budding, Michael Brown, Jane Bovey
Staff contact: josie.irwin@rcn.org.uk

The RCN is affiliated to the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) which lobbied at EU level for the introduction of this legislation. In the UK, the TUC has taken a high profile campaigning lead to get the UK Government to implement the directive in full. There are economies of scale for the RCN in joining/backing the TUC’s campaign and lobbying rather than initiating a separate RCN campaign.

Debate report

Congress voted for fairness with this resolution, asking Council to push for the implementation of the EU's Agency Workers Directive (AWD). This directive ensures that temporary agency workers receive the same basic employment rights as permanent staff, but it has not yet been introduced by the Government.

Proposer Mike Travis, Greater Liverpool and Knowsley Branch, said: "There's no use having a piece of legislation if you don't enforce it."

Most speakers agreed, highlighting the inequality between permanent and agency staff. Seconder Geoff Earl, Lothian Branch, reflected on how shocked he was as a student when he saw that temporary staff received lower pay and had worse conditions than their colleagues. He said: "These staff are part of our team, and as such deserve to be treated the same."

Cecilia Anim, North Central Inner London Branch, said: "We need equal access to employment law and rights. Job security for agency nurses would decrease the over-work of nurses, which affects patient safety."

Alan Sheward, RCN Critical Care and In-Flight Nursing Forum, supported improved working conditions, but felt that an over-reliance on temporary staff has a negative effect on care through lack of continuity.

Linda Bailey, RCN Public Health Forum, expressed concern that the AWD will improve the working conditions for expensive external advisers as well as nurses and health care assistants who need more pay.

The resolution was passed with 64.69% of the vote.

FOR: 262 – 64.69%
AGAINST: 143 – 35.31%
ABSTAIN: 50

Background

The main purpose of the Agency Workers Directive (AWD) is to ensure the appropriate protection of temporary agency workers through the application of the principle of equal treatment, and to address unnecessary restrictions and prohibitions on the use of agency work. The AWD follows similar directives on fixed term and part time work (which were based on European social partner agreements). Under the directive ‘equal treatment’ relates only to basic working and employment conditions of temporary agency workers (such as pay and working time); the directive does not affect the employment status of temporary workers.

The AWD allows the UK to implement the agreement reached on 20 May 2008 between the CBI and the TUC – after 12 weeks in a given job an agency worker will be entitled to equal treatment (at least the basic working and employment conditions that would apply to the worker concerned if they had been recruited directly by that undertaking to the same job).

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, has raised concerns that the recently drafted Agency Worker Regulations contain too many loopholes to be fully effective in preventing mistreatment and has suggested that agency staff are in particular need of protection during the recession, as they are more susceptible than others to being underpaid, denied proper training or short-changed on redundancy payouts. He has therefore urged the Government to strengthen its employment law proposals in order to provide ‘real protection’ to these workers, stating: "Any loopholes which would allow unscrupulous employers to avoid the law and to undercut reputable firms must be closed".

The EU Agency Workers Directive was due to be introduced in the UK as early as spring 2010, but the Government has announced that the reforms will now be deferred until October 2011 – the last possible commencement date under EU law. The move follows criticism from business groups that if the reforms were implemented in 2010, it would impose additional red tape costs on firms when they are already struggling to survive the recession.

These regulations are critical for low-paid agency workers who can be subject to substantial levels of vulnerability – largely centred on their status as workers without job security or control over working hours allocated to them – and who would prefer the security of direct employment but may choose to work for an agency in order to work flexibly.

The RCN lobbies for effective workforce planning which would minimise the need for ad hoc usage of temporary or agency nurses when there are gaps in the workforce that should be filled with permanent staff. The RCN also supports the implementation of the AWD and supports the principles within it that all staff working in health and social care, whether in a permanent or temporary position, should be treated equally in terms of their employment conditions.

References and further reading
Royal College of Nursing (2009) Difficult times, difficult choices: the UK nursing labour market review 2009, London: RCN.
www.rcn.org.uk

Official Journal of the European Union (2008) Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on temporary agency work, Official Journal of the European Union, 51, 5 December, L327/9 – L 327/14.
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2008:327:0009:0014:EN:PDF