Employment minister Pat McFadden visted hospitality recruiter Admiral Group and sat with temporary agency workers on site yesterday.

The move comes after a campaign highlighting agency workers’ plight, which met with a mixed response from recruiters (Recruiter, 18 February).

Pat McFadden says the number of calls made to the Employment Agency Standards campaign had trippled since the start of the campaign:

“The vast majority of agencies are working very hard to treat people fairly. I have seen at first hand today an agency that treats its clients and candidates with respect, but there are some employment agencies who are short changing their staff and not playing by the rules.”

Tom Hadley, director of external relations at the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, told Recruiter:

“It’s about making sure he’s clear that the majority of agencies are doing the right thing. I spoke to him afterwards and he said: ‘It’s not about painting the industry in a bad light, it’s about protecting workers and businesses’.’”