Employment agencies legislation was introduced in the 1970s to protect workers. Sharp and unscrupulous agencies were exploiting their workers by charging them fees, sending them to jobs that were very different to how they had been described and where the hours and conditions did not match those advertised.
Postgraduate deaneries act in many ways like an employment agency. The legislation defines these as businesses which find employment for workers and supply employers with workers for their employment.
Employment agency legislation imposes a number of demands, which deaneries do not always comply with. Workers should be given details of the place they are working within three days of a job offer. Workers should be able to reject a job they have been offered but haven’t started, with no penalty. And there are duties of confidence around the employment process.
Remedy has been campaigning for some time to ensure that doctors are protected in the same way as other workers. Whether or not deaneries are covered by this legislation remains unclear.
One Department of Health spokesman told me that it had been “a bit of an oversight” and that deaneries were never intended to be restricted by this legislation.
So we looked with interest at a recent government consultation on the conduct of employment agencies. This makes it quite clear that the government considers “that they operate as employment agencies within the definition contained within the Act, and there is currently no legislation in place for them”.
This is excellent news for doctors. In particular, it should stop the draconian practice whereby jobs are offered in a recruitment round where doctors are compelled to withdraw from other jobs that they have applied for, before they have even been told what job it is that they are accepting. Remedy have always considered this as deeply unfair and would be interested in hearing from anyone who has been disadvantaged by this.
But there is a sting. The government now proposes to introduce an amendment to the legislation so as to exempt deaneries. This amendment has been so badly worded that it will not only exempt deaneries but could also exempt other medical employment agencies.
The justification that they give is flimsy. They argue that they want to “restore deaneries to their previous position” of being exempt - in other words before they had noticed the oversight. But this doesn’t explain why they should be exempt in the first place.
Why are doctors not protected in the same way as workers in the catering trade? Why do we allow ourselves to be exploited in this way? Remedy urges you to write to your MP and ask them to oppose these changes.
Tags: Deaneries, Recruitment
It seems pretty fundamental that in any interaction between employer and employee, it should be clear that one is applying for a specific job or jobs (which must have clear job descriptions) - and so can accept or reject an offer of employment.
If it is not so, then maybe all doctors should just ’sign on’ to work in the NHS (as one does for the armed forces) - and can be ‘posted’ to any job where ‘your country need you’! Is this the way doctors want to work?
Malcolm Morrison
Retired Orthopaedic Surgeon
Swimdon