Claims that recruiters have cleaned up their act

The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate has only prosecuted a tiny amount of recruitment agencies, and recovered £200,000 in unpaid wages, on behalf of contractors who complained that they had not been paid after completing an assignment.

Around 1.2m workers receive placements every year through recruitment agencies and according to a report from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, 1567 complaints were received in the year 2008/9. Of these 1450 were cleared. Even if all 1567 complaints had been justified, the percentage would only amount to 0.0013% of the recruitment agency workforce.

The EAS aims to further increase compliance among employers and protect vulnerable temporary workers and although they did claw back three times more unpaid wages last year compared to the previous 12 months, £200,000 is a miniscule amount in an industry with an annual turnover of £20bn.

Their targets for the next financial year include completing 80% of complaint investigations within 6 weeks and submitting to Head Office 95% of cases that they believe require prosecution within 2 months of obtaining legal advice.

This tough stance has been welcomed by both the TUC and the REC who have been campaigning for better protection for agency workers and stricter enforcement of current regulations.

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