The Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC) says it will not to pursue action for a judicial review of certain parts of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) due to the tight three-month timescale prescribed by law.

ARC says it has received persuasive advice from Queen’s Counsel that the case for a judicial review was strong, and substantial support from its members and others within the industry, but in the end it was deemed impractical to assemble the case by yesterday’s deadline.
 
ARC adds that it does not accept that the option of waiting for guidance, as has been suggested to be the way forwards, is one that will assist since it will not change the law. It is the words in the regulations that make organisations liable, and no amount of guidance will remove that.

ARC further adds that it would have been in the interests of the entire industry if the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and APSCo had supported its initiative. However, it says, neither chose to discuss their views with ARC “ahead of their surprising last minute press releases and comments”. It says it had published its thoughts and plans on this several weeks ago and had been in touch with their representatives and influential members to attract a broad consensus.

Adrian Marlowe, chair of ARC, says: “Sadly time has defeated us. A judicial review would have kept the issue open and obliged an incoming government to consider the regulations. Strategically the timing has always been key because it expired before the election.

“After nearly two years of discussion and two consultations it is fair to say that the option of further talks had currently reached the end of the line. The regulations are now law and the only guarantee that the matter would be kept alive is if there had been a judicial review.
 
“The recruitment world needs to work together to find the best way of helping employers from the worst excesses of the directive. I believe this is a prize worth fighting for. ARC has worked hard over the last six weeks to engage all stakeholders and BIS on Rs.3(3) and (4). It will continue to build on the evidence to demonstrate the inappropriateness and disproportionate effect of these regulations, and take the case forwards on this and other issues.”

Tom Hadley, external relations director at the REC, told Recruiter: “All our policy decisions are driven by our members. We took the initiative to flag up to our members that they needed to make sure that the new regulations focused on different structures like master vendors and umbrellas, and our view all along is that it is not in the interests of the industry to have an obvious loophole like that.

“It does sound good and you can get headlines but there is not a cat in hell’s chance it would ever succeed. We are moving on to other things and have made a conscious decision not to spend time on something that is not in the interests of the industry and has no chance of succeeding.”

Recruiter approached APSCo for comment but had not heard back at time of press.