Over half of recruitment firms strongly disagree with the DTI’s view that there is now ‘widespread acceptance of temp-to-perm proposals’, according to figures released by Reed.

400 agencies that use Reed’s Freecruitment service were polled by the company, which also found that 59% of agencies expressed strong disagreement with the DTI’s assertion in February that the EAA proposals would ‘eliminate the need for paper-based bureaucracy’.

James Reed, chief executive of the recruitment giant, called on the DTI to look again at the proposed regulations. ‘I agree that some case can be made for modernising the current regulations, but remain very concerned that the DTI’s proposals amount to a big step in the wrong direction,’ he said.

Reed also pointed out that the REC, which he described as initial endorsers of the DTI’s temp-to-perm fee proposals, only represents a minority of the industry.

But Tim Nicholson, chief executive of the REC, reacted angrily to Reed’s comments. ‘It is not news that the industry does not in general support the EAA proposals. The government is very well aware of it and there is no risk that it will forget, as it receives regular reminders from REC, together with constructive proposals for minimising the damage that will be done if substantial changes are not made to the current draft,’ he said.

Nicholson rejected the view that the REC was an initial endorser of the government’s proposals. ‘If REC had not got deeply involved, the industry would face a four-week quarantine period and not an 8-14 week scale. Let me state again that it was the change from the former to the latter that we welcomed, not the regulation itself.’

Nicholson also described the statement that the industy body ‘represents only a minority view’ as disingenuous.