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| Agency workers need better treatment |
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Agency workers are paid significantly less and have much lower levels of job quality than directly employed staff according to a new report released yesterday(6 May). The study, entitled ‘Agency Working in the UK: What do we Know?’ has been conducted by academics at the Universities of Bradford, Leeds and Kent. It coincides with discussions in Parliament over a Private Members’ Bill which would grant agency workers equal treatment to permanently employed workers in comparable jobs.Drawing on data from the 2007 Labour Force Survey and the 2006 Skills Survey, the report provides a clear picture of the current state of agency working in the UK. It finds that, on average, agency workers are paid £7.80 per hour compared to £11.47 for permanent workers, a difference of 32 per cent. This gap is higher for men (41 per cent) and lower, but still significant at 19 per cent for women. The report also sheds light on the number of agency workers and the characteristics of the agency workforce, to debunk many of the myths that have become the hallmark of the long-standing debate between government, employer representatives and unions over proposed regulation of the agency sector. The study finds that there are 250,000 agency workers in the UK, around 1 per cent of the employed workforce. This figure stands in contrast to the 1.4 million estimate of the agency workforce compiled by the Recruitment and Employment Confederation - a figure which has been used by the CBI to claim that regulation of the sector would cost around a quarter of a million jobs. Two thirds of agency workers are concentrated in clerical, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations, whilst only one in five are found in managerial and professional occupations. The average length of tenure for agency workers is 4.5 months, and 73 per cent of agency workers have tenure levels of less than a year. Dr Gary Slater, Senior Lecturer in Economics at the University of Bradford and co-author of the report, said: “The CBI has called for equal rights to be limited to agency workers with tenure of one year or more. Our study shows that almost three-quarters of agency workers would be excluded from coverage if such a restriction were to be put in place, which surely runs counter to the aims of the Bill to provide equal treatment.”       |
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