SNOW-FALL preventing half of Britain's employees getting to work has forced companies to use temporary agency workers, according to the number-one procurer of temporary labour, de Poel.
New figures released by the cost-saving consultancy show that whilst their clients' combined spend on temporary agency labour has risen 28% since last January, the increase in spend from the first to the second week of the month is up 8% from last year.
According to de Poel, such increases can only be attributed to Britain's heaviest snowfall in 50 years, which confined nearly half of British workers to their homes.
Matthew Sanders, Chief Executive of de Poel, said: "Originally we thought the combined increase in spend since last year was due to the economy picking up, companies being reluctant to take on permanent workers until the market was more stable.
"But the fact that there was such a big increase in spend from the first to the second week of January this year suggested that the snow was definitely a factor in driving companies to employ more temporary agency labour.
"In a recession, temporary agency workers with unstable incomes are much more likely to battle through the snow to get to work than permanent staff.
"Indeed, the contingency plans we put in place for our clients involved having temporary workers on standby to shovel snow from car parks and main routes in the event that there was no salt available."
The figures, which came out today, suggested that there was a substantial rise in use of temporary agency workers in the retail and logistics sectors particularly, with overall spend up 35% and 38% respectively since last year.
In the care sector however, total spend was actually down on last year, and the increase from the first to the second week in January was 8% less than the increase for the month in 2009.
de Poel put this change down to the unique constitution of the care sector workforce.
"The care sector is unlike any other industry sector - in that it already heavily relies upon temporary agency staff," added Mr Sanders.
"In situations such as these, they are probably going to use less temporary agency labour because the staff just aren't as available to them.
"These kinds of incidents are proof that the government needs to do more to attract people to the care industry and ensure that the care sector workforce is sufficient to meet increasing demand."
According to the Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, there are currently 1.3m agency workers in the UK, playing a vital role in enabling employers to respond flexibly to changing business needs.
"Savings of 8% on the company's temporary agency labour spend has increased profitability."
