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Top-end freelancers who are genuinely in business on their own account are generally exempt from the regulations, which give similar rights to temporary and agency workers after 12 weeks in post to those given to employees.
The survey asked employers and clients about their assessment of the impact the AWRand revealed that:
- 44 per cent agreed with the statement that 'the regulations have had less impact than we feared'
- 47 percent said the regulations have had some impact, but have not fundamentally changed the way they use agency staff
- three percent answered that the regulations have had a significant impact on their use of agency staff
- two per cent said that the regulations have meant they have stopped using agency staff all together
- four per cent were unsure.
REC’s Director of Research, Roger Tweedy, said: “Despite many fears about the detrimental impact that AWR could have on the use of agency workers, UK businesses continue to understand the value in recruiting temporary, flexible labour. This data reinforces the findings of research we conducted earlier in the year, so we can be confident that the impact of the regulations has been a lot less damaging than some people feared it would be.”
Future
The survey questioned 600 employers or clients from across a range of industries and sizes of organisations in the public and private sector about their hiring intentions over the next quarter and 12 months beyond that.
Twenty-seven per cent said they plan to increase agency worker numbers in the next quarter (up one point on last month) with 11 percent saying they intend to decrease their use of agency workers (compared to 13 per cent last month). There were similar figures for the longer term projection.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2012
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