Source · Select Committees · Business and Trade Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Use delegated powers to enhance protections for agency workers through zero-hours contract reform.
Recommendation
The Committee therefore urges the Government to use the delegated powers provided by the Bill to reform zero-hours contracts to enhance protections for agency workers as soon as possible. These reforms 36 should not be at the expense of the important need for flexibility that eight in ten temp agency workers told REC that their work provides. (Recommendation, Paragraph 24)
Government Response Summary
The government agrees to extend contract certainty to agency workers to prevent them from becoming a loophole in zero-hours contract reforms, having already brought forward amendments to the Employment Rights Bill and committing to consult on further detailed regulations.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Government believes that every worker should be able to access a contract which reflects hours they regularly work. This should extend to agency workers to offer them certainty of hours and security of income, while also ensuring that agency work does not become a loophole in the plans to end exploitative zero hours contracts. The Government consulted last year on the application of zero-hour measures to agency workers and, following stakeholder feedback, has brought forward amendments to expand on the provisions in the Employment Rights Bill so that hirers, agencies and agency workers are clear where responsibilities will rest in relation to the new rights. Those amendments have now been made. Under the Bill as it now stands, many of the key parameters underpinning the new rights will be set in regulations. The Government will consult on the regulations and will take the necessary time to develop these detailed provisions. By continuing to engage with employer organisations, the recruitment sector and trade unions, the Government intends to identify the best way to achieve the policy objective of extending rights for agency workers without causing unintended consequences to employment agencies and hirers. All workers will be able to remain agency workers if that is what they wish.