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The Government has agreed a deal between unions and employers that can pave the way to reaching agreement in Europe on an agency workers directive that secures this flexibility for the UK.

Announcing the agreement, business secretary John Hutton said that this was the right deal for Britain.

"Today's agreement achieves our twin objectives of flexibility for British employers and fairness for workers. It will give people a fair deal at work without putting their jobs at risk or cutting off a valuable route into employment," he added.

The CBI and TUC reached agreement on how fairer treatment for agency workers in the UK should be promoted, without losing the flexibility that agency work can offer both employers and workers.

Under the terms of the agreement, there will be an entitlement to equal treatment after 12 weeks in a given job.

Equal treatment will be defined to mean at least the basic working and employment conditions that would apply to the workers concerned if they had been recruited directly by that undertaking to occupy the same job. It will not cover occupational social security schemes.

The Government will consult the social partners regarding the implementation of the directive more generally.

This will cover mechanisms for resolving disputes regarding the definition of equal treatment and compliance with the new rules that avoid undue delays for workers and unnecessary administrative burdens for business.

Appropriate arrangements will be discussed to enable the two sides of industry and also public services to reach appropriate agreements on the treatment of agency workers, while respecting the overall protection of agency workers.

Appropriate anti-avoidance measures will be examined, in particular relating to the treatment of repeat contracts for the same worker and the position of workers with permanent contracts of employment with agencies who continue to be paid between assignments.

The new arrangements will be reviewed at an appropriate point in the light of experience.

The Government will now engage with its European partners to seek agreement on the terms of the Agency Workers Directive that will enable this agreement to be brought into legal effect in the United Kingdom.

It hopes that EU agreement will be obtained in time for the necessary UK implementing legislation to be introduced in the next parliamentary session.

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Related links

• Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform