Has the opt-out lobby killed the EB regs for everyone?

[The AntiChrist]

It is apparent from my experiences with Employment Businesses and some recent posts (eg. http://forums.contractoruk.com/showt...924#post271924)

...that most EB's, have got hold of the opt-opt dispensation won by the likes of the PCG for IT contractors, and are using it to coerce all kinds of contract and temp staff into opting out of the EB regs. The benefits to the EB are :-

- Less paperwork.
- Avoids mistakes in following the regs and consequent trouble with difficult temps.
- Being able to play fast and loose with contract terms, just like they used to.

EB's usually downplay the Regs as being only applicable to poor immigrant cleaners etc. I'm sure many have had this kind of line in their contract paperwork. In many cases it seems that EB's and umbrella's (apparently) are effectively making it a term of the contract to opt-out.

This means the really vulnerable temps, competing with lots of others for low paid jobs, are being coerced into signing an opt-out (thus making them more vulnerable) just to get the job.

So.... have we done the wider temp/contracting community a disservice by winning the opt-out ? Discuss.

[malvolio]

Only if genuine agency temps - the Office Angels types - are opting out and there's no evidence they are. The opt out is only of benefit to an incorporated work seeker (and by extension those wimps who use umbrellas) and in reality they make very little difference to us one way or the other: Late or non-payment can be dealt with by better and more direct means these days, and 99% of the time handcuff clauses aren't that much of an issue; there's nothing else in there of direct potential benefit and quite a lot that forces you to look like an employee, which is why the PCG wanted the opt out in the first palce.


The agency temp though is far more vulnerable, and if anyone knows of agencies getting them to opt out they need to be shopped to the DTI immediately 'cos they're breaking the law

[tim123]

EB's are getting third party payroll comapanies to sign the opt out as the worker's employer.

I don't believe for one minute that this insertion of the payroll company into the chain makes the worker eligable for the opt out.

If they really are getting everyone to opt out, sooner or later there will be a test case and the EB's will learn that they have been wasting their time.

tim