The implementation of the Agency Workers’s Directive will be delayed until December 2011, should the Conservative Party
win the next general election.

At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Anne Fairweather, head of public policy at the REC, told Recruiter that shadow minister for corporate governance and business regulation Jonathan Djanogly said the directive would cost British businesses £40bn over the next decade and consequently the Conservatives would campaign against early implementation.

Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, says: “The REC has been calling on the government to delay implementing this directive until the last possible moment in 2011. We are pleased to see the Conservative Party recognises that the cost of getting the implementation of this directive wrong could be huge. It is vital that the labour market recovers before the regulations are implemented. This will also give recruiters and their clients the time to plan how best to ensure
that equal treatment after 12 weeks works in practice.

“This is a complex issue and by waiting until December 2011, we can ensure that we minimise the adverse effect of this legislation
on jobs.”