Tories want ‘best’ migrants in UK

Shadow Minister for Immigration, Damian Green, has identified the Australian immigration system as the one he wants the UK system to most closely resemble. He has said that the Conservative party would keep the government’s points based migration system, but place an overall annual limit on numbers, in an attempt to cut low skilled migration but push for more highly qualified migrants to come to the UK. (more…)

The implementation of the Agency Workers’s Directive will be delayed until December 2011, should the Conservative Party win the next general election.

At the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Anne Fairweather, head of public policy at the REC, told Recruiter that shadow minister for corporate governance and business regulation Jonathan Djanogly said the directive would cost British businesses £40bn over the next decade and consequently the Conservatives would campaign against early implementation. (more…)

There appears to be differing messages coming from the Government regarding the implementation of the Agency Workers Directive.

The following information has been extracted from the latest information we, at the Jenrick CPI IT Recruitment Consultancy,  have received from APSCo, which indicates conflicting viewppoints of when and how the implementation will take place. (more…)

Jenrick CPI has reason to believe that part of the government strategy to revive it’s coffers for 2010 will be to re-visit IR35. HMRC will be keen to find a route to maximise return to the Treasury in light of the announcement by the government of major cuts in public expenciture.

This was backed up by a recent interview with a tax inspector…….

IR35 is likely to be high on HMRC’s agenda this autumn as, following a lull of 18 months, limited company contractors will once more be in the firing line, warns former HMRC manager and IR35 expert Kate Cottrell of Bauer & Cottrell. (more…)

David Frost, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, has written to Business Secretary Lord Mandelson calling for implementation of the Agency Workers Directive to be delayed until the last possible date, October 2011.

Economic recovery will be undermined unless the government draws back from introducing new rights for agency workers in a way that damages the UK’s flexible labour market, Frost says in his letter. (more…)

In its submission to the consultation on the Agency Workers Directive which closed on the 31st July, the TUC called on the Government to ensure new rules give agency workers protection from exploitation and equal treatment on pay, holiday and hours.

The TUC wants the Directive to end discrimination against temps by guaranteeing that all agency workers receive the same rights on pay, holiday and working time as directly employed staff, following a 12-week qualifying period. (more…)

Indications are that limited company contractors will be excluded from the Agency Workers Directive, whereas umbrella company contractors will be covered by the directive. This information is based on the final consultation meeting at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in London yesterday, to which ContractorCalculator’s CEO, Dave Chaplin, was invited. (more…)

Jenrick CPI was a key member of the lobby group that met with MP’s at the House of Commons on Monday 6th October to discuss the Temporary Workers Directive, sometimes called the Agency Workers Directive (also see our TWD article dated September 9th 2008).

The hosts for the event were Jim Dowd (MP for Lewisham) and Andrew Miller (MP for Ellesmere Port), and was organised by ATSCo (Association of Technical Staffing Companies) and sponsored by Lloyds TSB. (more…)

Jenrick CPI has joined a lobby group with other ATSCo members and has been invited to the House of Commons to discuss, amongst other issues within the industry, the Temporary Workers Directive (TWD). (more…)