Wed, 27 May 2015 The government has reiterated its commitment to remove restrictions for organisations hiring agency staff as cover during industrial action, despite failing to address the issue in today’s Queen Speech.

Delivering her annual address at the State Opening of Parliament today, Her Majesty the Queen said the government would bring forward legislation to reform trade unions and protect essential public services against strikes.

The accompanying document to the speech contains details of several new bills covering unions, immigration and full employment.

A Department for Business, Innovations & Skills spokesperson confirmed to Recruiter that the Conservative Party Manifesto proposal concerning strike breakers had been omitted from the Union Bill in the document. 

But the spokesperson added that the government is committed to removing restrictions on hiring agency staff to provide urgent cover during strikes.

The Union Bill puts forward new rules for a 50% minimum voting turnout threshold for union ballots to be considered valid, as well as a requirement that of those entitled to vote, 40% must vote in favour of industrial action if they work in certain essential public services including health, education, fire and transport. 

The document also contains details about an Immigration Bill that, as expected, introduces a new offence of illegal working, a new enforcement agency that cracks down on the worst cases of labour exploitation, as well as making it illegal for employment agencies to recruit solely from abroad without also advertising those jobs in Britain and in English.

Meanwhile, a consultation will be carried out on funding apprenticeship schemes for British and EU workers by implementing a new visa levy on businesses that use foreign labour. 

Commenting on the introduction of the new enforcement agency, Kate Shoesmith, head of policy at the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, says: “Proper resourcing for a new body will be the critical point. In fact it was us, alongside the TUC, who said that BIS needed to maintain resources in the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate back in 2013, something government took on board this year as they have increased the number of inspectors. 

“As well as providing adequate resource we would want a new, single agency to be fully informed by those existing agencies, so that the new body can develop their approach from this position of strength, rather than starting from scratch.”

Addressing the immigration reforms, Matthew Sanders, chief executive of Brookfield Rose whose companies include temporary labour procurer de Poel, social enterprise de Poel Community and mobile job search app Zoek, said: “While today’s announcement of a new immigration law is a good first step, I would like to see more of a focus on helping to create more high-skill, high-wage jobs and equipping all British people, UK-born or not, with the skills and attitudes to fill them. 

“In a Utopian world, Cameron would allow communities that experience significant immigration to share immediately in the economic benefits that arise from those immigrants’ labour and taxes.

“Immigration can be economically and socially beneficial, and as responsible, open-minded employers, who naturally want to employ the most productive workers on the most competitive wages, we should welcome those people that wish to work hard and have a place in the UK workforce.”

Meanwhile Alistair Cox, CEO of recruitment giant Hays, claimed some rhetoric around the new Immigration Bill in particular was worrying. 

“The government must start drawing a clearer distinction between skilled migration and immigration more generally, as the two have very different consequences.

“World-class economies are based on world-class talent. If Britain is to compete successfully on a global scale, British business must have unfettered access to that talent, wherever it resides. Given the UK’s skills gap, skilled migration is, quite simply, the only way for businesses to support immediate growth plans and fill roles that would otherwise remain vacant.”

Elsewhere in the Queen’s Speech document were details of a Full Employment Bill. This bill includes a statutory duty to report on progress towards the government’s objective of achieving the highest employment rate in the G7, with details of how this would be measured to follow when the government produces the first annual report on progress. 

Addressing apprenticeships, the bill also includes a duty to report annually on progress against meeting the government’s target of creating 3m new apprenticeships. 

Commenting on the government’s apprenticeships target Chris Jones, CEO of the City & Guilds Group, said: “The enthusiasm for reaching 3m apprenticeships underscores the importance of vocational training for people up and down the country.

“However, numbers don’t mean anything unless apprenticeships offer a quality teaching and learning experience for every apprentice. If reaching targets becomes more important than ensuring quality, apprenticeships could lose their credibility and the progress we’ve made so far will be undone. If we get the quality right, the numbers will come.”

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