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Recruitment enforcement mechanisms must be protected

Friday 2nd July 2010

With expenditure cuts set to impact on services and structures across the public sector, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation has called for current enforcement mechanisms to be protected and enhanced.

The REC said this would be one of the issues it would raise in the upcoming meeting with new Employment Relations Minister Edward Davey.

The REC recently spelled out its clear and unequivocal opposition to any extension of the current Gangmaster Licensing regulations and highlighted more effective ways of raising standards.

The priority is to avoid burdening agencies with additional costs and bureaucracy at a time when the industry is already getting to grips with the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) and pensions reform.

However, there are concerns that expenditure cuts could impact on existing structures such as the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EAS) within the Department for Business.

REC Director of External Relations Tom Hadley said: "The REC has consistently called on Government to deliver effective enforcement of existing regulations. This is crucial to protect the interests of law-abiding businesses as well as workers and would not be served by dismantling current enforcement mechanisms.

"While licensing extension is not the way forward, enhancing industry standards and addressing bad practice is critical. We welcome the Government's initial steer on ensuring that inspections are properly targeted and will continue to work constructively with existing inspectorates."

In a recent letter to Dr Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for Business, REC Chief Executive Kevin Green called for a strengthening the existing Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate in particular, through better prioritisation and risk assessment. Discussions have also highlighted the fact that the recruitment sector already has more regulation than almost any other service industry.

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