PM seeks confidential legal advice on temporary worker laws

According to The Daily Telegraph, David Cameron is seeking confidential legal advice from outside Whitehall in an effort to make a decision on the new Agency Workers Directive.

The new law, which is due to give agency employees who have been employed for at least 12 weeks the same rights as full-time workers to pay, holiday and maternity leave, could cost British businesses £2 billion a year.

Fears that this could disrupt the UK’s economic recovery, along with the belief that business secretary, Vince Cable, plans to add extra regulations to the directive, have caused Cameron to seek advice from expert on EU law, Martin Howe QC, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Cable’s additional regulations would undermine the coalition’s promise to reduce unnecessary red-tape and Cameron’s advisers are considering scrapping some of them.

It is believed that Howe has presented the Prime Minister with three options: he could postpone and adapt the directive, design new legislation to overrule the EU diktat, or simply block the new law completely – although the latter course could result in a multi-million pound fine from the European Commission.

In an official statement from Downing Street, a spokesperson said: “We are now looking at every part of employment law as part of the red tape challenge. We want to do everything we can to help employers and drive growth.”