Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, offered her support to the Directive during a visit to Brussels in June, but only on the provision that a worker had been working for 12-18 months.

Emma Reynolds, a Policy Researcher for smallbusiness|europe, the UK small business group based in Brussels, said: "The six week notice period is not workable for the UK recruitment industry. Out of all of the amendments in the draft Directive, this is the principle concern; it should be at least 12-months and that will continue to be the focus of our input."

Following an industry survey in April, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC), announced four in ten UK employers would not hire temporary workers if the AWD is introduced in its present state.

A REC spokesman said: "The amendments proposed by the Rapporteur, Ms Van Den Burg, do not address all of the industry concerns and we will be seeking British MEP's to table our own amendments in due course. There is all to play for over the forthcoming months. It is likely to make the Government's efforts in the Council of Ministers even more crucial in getting the Directive into a shape that will not be harmful to the labour market. REC has a meeting with Alan Johnson, Minister for Employment Relations, scheduled in October on this issue."

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has also recently warned that 160,000 UK employment opportunities a year could be lost under the current AWD.

It said survey results showed the Directive would cause 57 per cent of firms to offer fewer 'temp' assignments and pointed out the UK has around 770,000 agency workers, more than any other EU country.

Miss Reynolds from smallbusiness|europe said the CBI's findings illustrated how businesses fears of using temporary workers as a consequence could mean twice as much work for existing employees.

The danger of the AWD for employers is that they will have to draw up individual contracts or pay scales for every temporary worker engaged for more than six weeks and make these available to employment agencies. Employers may also be accountable for a breach of contract if they discuss confidential information about employee’s salaries.

Tarlo Lyons, the law firm, estimates IT freelancers working through their own businesses will most likely be exempt from the final Directive, as they are not generally deemed to suffer from unfair exploitation by clients.

However, the Directive has changed a number of times already and is subject to change again before October 2, when Ms Van Den Burg's final version of the Directive is presented to the European Committee.

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Richard Powell, © Shout99.com 2002