Recently there has been a bit of a campaign by the unions to demonise temporary workers and agencies and the conditions they make the workers work in. The REC work very hard to counter this, and only yesterday Tom Hadley, the REC’s Director of External Relations, explained: “There has never been a more important time to celebrate the role of temporary, contract and interim staff. The ongoing trade unions’ campaigns for more regulations on the industry have inevitably included an extremely negative portrayal of agency workers in general.
“One of the ways of challenging this is to highlight both the contribution these flexible workers make to the UK economy and the benefits it brings to them by enabling them to take on
temporary assignments which fit in with their busy or diverse lifestyles.”
I have been at a meeting today where Gareth Osbourne put this into quite succinct terms, probably more useable now he is not the Chief Executive of the REC - "utter bollocks" was his assessment of the allegations of the unions!
I couldnt agree more. If you asked any of the locums working in the legal profession, most of them have a better time than the employed staff - after all they can walk out of an assignment if the boss proves to be a complete nutcase, something permanent staff cannot do unless they have another job. Most are doing it because they like the flexibility of the hours and the better pay in any event. I think the unions need to research this before they make such wild statements. Obviously migrant workers being worked to death picking brussel sprouts for 3p per hour may wish to argue with me on this point!
Jonathan Fagan, MD - www.ten-percent.co.uk recruitment consultants for the legal profession.
“One of the ways of challenging this is to highlight both the contribution these flexible workers make to the UK economy and the benefits it brings to them by enabling them to take on
temporary assignments which fit in with their busy or diverse lifestyles.”
I have been at a meeting today where Gareth Osbourne put this into quite succinct terms, probably more useable now he is not the Chief Executive of the REC - "utter bollocks" was his assessment of the allegations of the unions!
I couldnt agree more. If you asked any of the locums working in the legal profession, most of them have a better time than the employed staff - after all they can walk out of an assignment if the boss proves to be a complete nutcase, something permanent staff cannot do unless they have another job. Most are doing it because they like the flexibility of the hours and the better pay in any event. I think the unions need to research this before they make such wild statements. Obviously migrant workers being worked to death picking brussel sprouts for 3p per hour may wish to argue with me on this point!
Jonathan Fagan, MD - www.ten-percent.co.uk recruitment consultants for the legal profession.
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