European plans for temporary workers stalled
Licensees will be relieved to learn that plans to give temporary workers the same rights as permanent staff have stalled in Europe.
The ruling would have required employers to give temporary workers the same workplace rights as permanent staff, including equal pay, pensions and holiday rights.
It is understood that countries, including the UK, have failed to agree over the qualifying time for temps.
The European Commission wanted workers who were employed for six-week or more to receive the same rights as permanent staff while Britain and other opposing countries wanted 12 months.
The trade had feared that the regulation would make it more expensive to employ temps for holiday and seasonal cover - a view supported by the Confederation of British Industry which argued last week that thousands of jobs could be at risk if the government accepts the European proposal. Mark Hastings, spokesman of the British Beer & Pub Association, said: "We now have time for a pause and consider what the real impact of the proposals are for jobs and the economy. "The proposals would have produced more bureaucracy and red-tape and would have reduce the opportunities for employment growth in the sector."
A poll on thePublican.com at the end of last year revealed that almost three-quarters of licensees would be put off from employing temporary staff if the ruling was passed.
But the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which supports the proposal, has accused the government of scuppering decent pay and rights for temporary workers. Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: "The government has sided with business interests to scupper the prospect of temporary workers getting equal pay and basic rights in the foreseeable future."
European Commissioner Anna Diamantopolou, who pushed through the proposals, has expressed her disappointment. "There is no objective reason why the Council could not have reached a political agreement on the directive," she said.
