Public and Commercial Services Union

"We are very pleased to introduce this guide for activists. We hope it will help PCS representatives organise and campaign with agency workers for a better deal at work. It provides guidance and tips and advice on how to negotiate and campaign and organise to achieve the important objectives in the PCS policy." Kevin Kelly, national vice-president; Charles Cochrane , director of policy, research, information and bargaining support.

The use of agency workers by government and commercial sector employers is becoming more and more common.

While some agency workers just cover short-term absences, in many cases they do the same work as permanent or fixed term colleagues, often for extended periods of time, and almost always on worse pay and terms and conditions.

Under the government’s current efficiency drive the use of agency workers has become a pressing issue.

All departments, agencies and non departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are required to set efficiency targets in order to save money.

This is resulting in job cuts and relocations in many areas. Between 2005 and 2008 the government has said there will be 104,000 job cuts and relocations with further cuts beyond 2008. In areas that have been outsourced there is also pressure to save money as departments try to keep contract costs down and contractors try to win contracts.

Although posts are being cut, the work has not gone away. Using agency workers has been one of the ways that departments have filled the gap.

For example in Scottish Executive there has been virtually no external recruitment of permanent staff in the last year, but a big increase in the use of temporary agency staff, encouraged by discretion to recruit being given to local managers.

In the Learning and Skills Council, during the year following the 2005 job cuts and restructuring exercise, the amount of money spent on temporary agency workers shot up from £4 million to £8 million.

The costs of employing agency workers appear in different accounts from those for fixed term or permanent staff, so employing agency workers is attractive to departments seeking to keep to their efficiency targets for staffing.

But using agency workers is a more expensive option than using permanent or fixed term employees.

While agency workers are often paid the national minimum wage, the agency receives a hefty fee.

In the Rural Payments Agency in Workington, PCS representatives estimate that Adecco gets an average £9 per hour for each agency worker employed.

The Department of Health uses four employment agencies with varying charges.

Manpower charges £12.83 per hour for an administrative officer and pays the worker £8.40 per hour, while Hays charges £9.71 per hour for the same post and pays the worker £6.55.

In the Scottish Executive each agency worker costs an average of £25,000 per year, while the posts have a starting salary of £12,300 per year. And in DCA the cost of paying for agency workers and consultants combined comes to 18% of the pay bill.