New legislation, giving employees the right to request time off for training, will not be extended to include agency staff.
Under the terms of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Bill, employees are entitled to request training during their working lives.
However, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) had been lobbying against granting temporary workers the entitlement over concerns that it would create administrative problems.
Judith Armatage, the REC’s director of professional development, said: “The REC fully supports wide access to training for temps. However, we are pleased that the government took on board our argument and that it was not practical or even logical to extend the right to request ‘time off to train’ to the temporary workforce.
“People choose to temp precisely because it is flexible and allows students and those completing professional qualifications the time needed to complete their studies. Enshrining this as a right would not make sense as temporary workers are already able to adapt their schedule to fit their specific needs.”
