Mr Nicholson said: "It was a great opportunity for me to create a new organisation representing the interests of thousands of companies and individuals in this important and growing industry. REC has now established itself as the voice of the industry, and it is right now to find someone else to take it forward.

Tim Nicholson

"REC was launched in a time of rapid change and uncertainty, and a difficult combination of regulatory pressures and tough market conditions has challenged all of us to find the right ways forward. I am pleased with the way that REC - Board, members and Executive - have responded to the pressures and the problems. We are a great industry with a vital contribution to make, and REC is where it belongs, at the heart of debate. My choice is either to commit for a further substantial period, or make way for someone else who can do so, and I have decided on the latter. Therefore, from both a personal and a REC point of view, I feel this is a timely step."

Keith Faulkner, Chairman of REC, said: "Whilst we will be sorry to see Tim go, we fully concur with his thoughts on timing and the Board is being given time to find and settle in a new CEO. REC has become a pro-active, well-connected, issue driven organisation that looks for constructive solutions whilst ensuring members' interests are identified, debated and powerfully presented."

Tim Nicholson's legacy at REC

The Employment Agencies Act:

Mr Nicholson was highly involved in the campaign against the Government's proposed changes to the Employment Agencies Act, which sought to ban temp-to-perm fees for recruitment agencies, but often found it a slow moving and frustrating process as his final notes about it in the most recent REC newsletter showed.

He wrote: 'The REC suggestion to defer further action over the EAA until the regulatory scene settles down was intended as a constructive way for the Government to get both itself and the industry off the hook whilst other events unfold. It does not seem very sensible for EAA to go ahead if almost as soon as it is implemented new changes had to be made.

'However, for, I suspect political reasons, the idea was turned down. When [Alan Johnson] indicated that the process would continue as it is now, our expectation was that there would be the final consultation round at the end of May.

'Well it is now July and there is still, we understand, no immediate prospect of this taking place. Quite rightly, the focus is now on the Agency Workers' Directive and EAA must remain what it has been for some years now - a black cloud of uncertainty hanging over our industry with no timetable or any form of clear indication as to when we will be able to get to grips with it.'

The Agency Workers' Directive:

The AWD caused uproar across the UK and Europe when draft proposals were leaked in February of this year.

Mr Nicholson said: "REC has been involved in discussions about the intended Agency Workers' Directive for months. We have met with the DTI, CBI and European Commission who have the collective responsibility of 'adopting' the Directive before it enters the public domain.

"There are indications that opinion in Brussels is shifting, and the final outcome could be very different to the picture painted in these 'leaked' versions of the Directive. Our intensive effort, supported by Government and employers organisers, is beginning to bear fruit, and it is not yet the time for a public outcry against this Directive.

"The Directive has to strike a balance between necessary regulation to protect vulnerable workers, and promoting a valuable source of skilled, flexible labour and job opportunities. Although some of the ideas heard so far from Brussels have not encouraged us to believe that the importance of getting this balance right has thus far been understood, we have some hopes that this is now taking a better direction."

REC has said it expects to appoint someone to the post Mr Nicholson will leave 'by the turn of the year.'

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Richard Powell, © Shout99.com 2002