The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) surveyed 300 recruiters on recent changes in employment law and the effects they thought they would have on their business. The results showed that recruiters are concerned about issues surrounding equal pay and the granting of full employment rights to temporary workers after 12 weeks.

48% of those who responded to the survey indicated that the introduction of equal pay would result in a 10% rise in the cost of filling a temporary position because of the increased administration that would result. 57% of those polled said that the average assignment usually lasts for more than 12 weeks, indicating that the new legislation could indeed make it more expensive for companies to take on temporary staff.

Some of the other opinions that emerged from the survey included:

• 27% of respondents felt that identifying equal pay would be relatively simple, while 35% said that it would be hard to identify a comparable permanent worker to serve as an accurate comparison.
• 66% believed that new legislation would expose them to a greater risk of being taken to an employment tribunal.
• 34% of recruiters surveyed reported that they would start temporary workers on the equal pay rate rather than change the rate after the 12 week point had been reached to save additional administrative work.
• 43% thought that the process of finding the requisite information to ensure that pay rates were equal would incur additional costs in the recruitment process.

Temporary work is very important to the UK economy, as a separate study by the REC in conjunction with the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has highlighted. According to the report, 63% of temporary workers choose this form of employment as a route back into work after a period of unemployment.

Ashby Cohen are specialist employment law solicitors who work on the behalf of both employers and employees to resolve conflicts and legal issues in the workplace. Representing a wide range of clients over a broad spectrum of employment law cases, Ashby Cohen are ideally suited to help you with any employment law advice you may need.

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