Campaigns Round up

This week, the long-awaited government response to the 2021 umbrella company Call for Evidence was published, with a further consultation on proposals to regulate umbrella companies announced. Following our letter to the Secretary of State last month, we also met with senior officials leading on the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill to set out our concerns about the Bill’s remit. Elsewhere, we have been busy advocating for our members on immigration and in health and social care.

Government opens consultation on Umbrella Companies

Following the call for evidence on the umbrella company market last year, the Treasury has launched a further consultation on proposals to regulate umbrella companies. The REC has called for this to be a priority for the government for several years and we are pleased to see them finally taking action to address this issue. The REC will be submitting a response to the consultation, which closes on 29 August, in due course; to feed into this please email patrick.milnes@rec.uk.com or sam.beggs@rec.uk.com to share your views.

An Update on social workers in Northern Ireland

Our campaign against the ‘ban’ on agency social workers that the Department of Health in Northern Ireland proposed continues to be our priority. So far, we have issued a statement, written to the Chief Social Worker and circulated a press release to local media. The story was covered by ITV Good Morning Northern Ireland and our quote has been mentioned by other trade press and stakeholders. On 7 June, we issued a joint letter from the REC along with seven on-contract agencies who have been directly impacted by this. In the letter, we urge the department to scrap the absurd proposals and start engaging with workers and service-users.

Meeting with Department for Business and Trade regarding Private Members Bill

Earlier this week, REC Deputy CEO Kate Shoesmith and Campaigns Manager, Sam Beggs, met with senior officials at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) to discuss the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill currently progressing through Parliament. The purpose of this Bill is to give workers and agency workers the right to request a more stable contract. This meeting came about as a result of our recent letter to the Secretary of State. In the meeting, we reiterated our concerns about the inclusion of agency workers in the Bill, and to seek clarification on the timing regarding a right to request and who you make the request to (agency or end-hirer?), the inclusion of umbrella companies, and the definition of predictable.

These details are likely to be worked on as part of the regulations that sit alongside the Bill, and the REC will be feeding in views on how to include umbrella companies, how to define predictable work, and on the wider remit of the Bill. If you’d like to share views about any of the above or discuss this in more detail, please email Sam on sam.beggs@rec.uk.com

REC calls for an ‘immigration for growth’ approach as part of its Shortage Occupation List submission 

The campaigns team recently responded to the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC)’s review of the Shortage Occupation List (SOL). Although the Government and Opposition have listened to the REC’s call to review this list more regularly in future, this was the first opportunity since 2019 to reflect on member feedback and put forward our case for making the skilled worker visa more accessible for more occupations.

After hosting a member roundtable, speaking to other trade bodies, and harnessing REC data, we recommended that 10 occupations across three sectors be added to the SOL. Read more in our blog on our submission.

Media Corner

The trade and national media was keen for our take on the latest ONS labour market statistics which showed the number of people not working in the UK due to long-term sickness has risen to a new record, It gave us the chance to advise firms to consider their offer on both flexible work and employee engagement and show innovation in how they hire. Government also needs to act on the NHS backlog, skills reform and immigration, we said. We were also quoted on the front page of the Financial Times on the day after migration statistics were published; we told the FT that we should use our language, flexible labour laws and high-quality training to attract and help work-ready immigrants to fill some of the 1.7 million jobs advertised across the UK.

Research Corner

The REC’s latest Report on Jobs shows that temp billings rose for the thirty-fourth successive month in May, but caution around the outlook and a lack of suitable candidates led to a further marked fall in permanent staff appointments. Demand in the Hotel & Catering sector topped the rankings, though softer increases in demand were recorded for both permanent and temporary staff midway through the second quarter. Also, aggregate staff supply expanded at the quickest rate since December 2020. Recruiters cited redundancies linked to economic uncertainty and workers being more willing to look for new roles for high pay as attributions to the increased staff supply.

Look out for our upcoming Labour Market Tracker which will be published on 16th June.