“Dumbing down is one of the nastier characteristics of Brussels,” says Digby Jones, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

“It’s a shame that France and Germany, with high unemployment, are more interested in bringing Britain down in its competitiveness than in raising their own levels.”

The implication that Brussels is deliberately trying to disrupt UK plc is a bold stance for anyone to take. When it’s Digby Jones who’s hinting that, it carries even greater clout.

“I don’t think I have any big fears. If I can do something I try to do it. If I can’t, I don’t worry”

The recruitment industry is all too aware of the legislative threats winging their way from the European Commission and is desperately trying to fight them off. For Jones, lobbying against issues such as the Agency Workers Directive is his day job.

As director-general, Jones traverses the country to meet business leaders, trade union bosses and politicians every day, attending business dinners each night with little time to enjoy his Marylebone flat or the Worcestershire cottage he and his wife own.

But Jones still finds the time to spare me half an hour, and the generosity to forgive my late arrival on the day of a tube strike. “Just take Ken Livingstone’s testicles and ram them up his nose,” he jokes.

For one so consistently in the public eye, he is warm and welcoming. A sense of humour is the one thing he couldn’t cope without, he says, laughing that others would probably accuse him of not being able to live without the sound of his own voice.

Behind the smiling exterior, Jones is a logical thinker, personally and professionally. “I rationalise most of my concerns and I never ever worry about something I can do nothing about,”he says.

“I don’t think I have any big fears. If I can do something I try to do it. If I can’t, I don’t worry.”

No wonder he had a high-flying legal career. Born in Birmingham – still his favourite city – Jones went to University College, London, where he got a 2:1 in Law.

“Communication, advocacy, doing deals and persuading people, I’ve always enjoyed that,” he explains. Joining corporate firm Edge & Ellison after leaving university, he worked his way up over 17 years to become senior partner.

In 1998 he joined accountancy firm KPMG as vice-chairman of corporate finance.

Already involved with the CBI, in 1999 he was headhunted for the job of director-general. “Banging the drum for British business – I love it,”he says. “And I hope I make a difference.”

An honourable trade

The purpose of the CBI is to ensure that the government, the European Commission and the wider community understand the needs of British industry and the contribution it makes.

"It’s not a well-publicised sector and it’s not something that is on the radar screens of the general public or politicians”

Jones tells me that recruiters number among his members, he is working closely with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and has become increasingly aware of the stalling industry over the past few years.

So what contribution do recruiters make? The politician in him responds to the audience and Jones launches into the sort of praise for the industry that even recruiters rarely utter.

He acclaims its “professionalism” and “maturity”, the training opportunities that consultancies provide and the flexibility they ensure.

“It’s not a well-publicised sector and it’s not something that is on the radar screens of the general public or politicians,” he says. “But the services and the standards are clearly first class.”

"Our flexibility is the envy of Europe – it gives us a competitive advantage in productivity and it gives us a competitive advantage in being attractive to overseas investment"

The industry faces many challenges, he acknowledges, particularly in terms of recruiting good staff for its own agencies, knowing the industries they serve and costing, particularly in the current buyers’ market. The UK has the lowest unemployment in Europe and the most flexible labour market – and the recruitment industry must take some credit for that, says Jones.

But now, as we all know, the European Agency Workers Directive is threatening that flexibility and the com­petitiveness of British firms.

“In Europe, this is my number one priority,” says Jones. “Our flexibility is the envy of Europe – it gives us a competitive advantage in productivity and it gives us a competitive advantage in being attractive to overseas investment. That must not be harmed.”

Objections

The CBI’s main objection is that the directive would give an agency worker the same terms and conditions as permanent colleagues after only six weeks in a job. This “harmonisation” would massively increase the cost of temporary labour.

The UK needs “a big nation” as well. I hope that Germany will work with us on this”

According to a survey carried out by the CBI in August, 57% of firms would offer fewer temp assignments, threatening up to 160,000 assignments.

“Yet they [the European Commission] believe that if you make it more difficult for someone to get into the world of work, for some reason you create employment,”Jones says.

Again he goes into politician mode. “We want to get more women into work, we want to get more poor young people into work, we want to get more people in their 50s into work,” he says. “That ability should be enhanced on every occasion, not fettered.”

More than 90% of agency temps in Britain work in a placement for fewer than 12 months, says Jones. After a year in continuous employment with a single employer, he says, agency and permanent workers should gain equal rights. But six weeks is far, far too short a time.

Is 12 months realistic? “I’m not hopeful, I have to say,” Jones admits. The CBI would be “satisfied” with between nine months and 12 months, he finally concedes. “This is far too important for deals, far too important for sacrifices.”

Aside from rhetoric against this “politically motivated” and “old-fashioned” legislation, the CBI is trying to influence the vote in the Employment and Social Affairs Committee this month and the Copenhagen summit in December, when ministers will look at their agenda for Europe. The directive won’t be ratified for at least a year.

The Labour government has come out against the directive, but Jones is keen to remind it that this current predicament stems from Labour’s eagerness to sign up to the social chapter in 1997.

“We’re hopeful that the UK government will get Holland and Ireland on its side,”he adds. “They have large temporary workforces.” But the UK needs “a big nation” as well, says Jones. “I hope that Germany will work with us on this.”

The CBI has already talked to the press in an attempt to keep the issue at the forefront of the political agenda; and it’s met foreign politicians and lobby groups.

Now the organisation is planning to reach out to temps themselves, the very people whose jobs are at risk, according to the confederation. It wants to encourage them to approach their MPs.

“Lobbying is all about timing,” says Jones. “That’s everything. If you fire your gun too early, you create the oxygen for an issue but you create it when it’s not relevant. You can only do it once.” And that time, he says, is now.

Two years ago, the 15 leaders of European Union nations met in Lisbon and said they were going to make Europe the most competitive place to do business by 2010.

Yet Anna Diamantopoulou, the social affairs commissioner whose directorate introduced the AWD, seems to be trying to do the opposite, says Jones.

“You’ve got mums who want to be able to come into the world of work for three months at a time and who will never be able to do it again,”he says. “Is that what Mrs Diamantopoulou was put on this earth to do?”

Trepidation

Now it’s crunch time. The entire recruitment industry – and British business more generally – awaits the results with unease. This is a turning point for the European Union, says Jones. “It will be hugely symbolic of whether Brussels has shed its political past and is delivering on an agenda of competitiveness,” he adds.

Jones acknowledges that the Agency Workers Directive is only one of his many concerns about the British labour market, alongside the Working Time Directive, union militancy, and red tape and regulation. “And the fight goes on,” he says.

Jones himself has another two years only as director-general to “make the difference” that he wants. And what does he plan to do then?

“I truly haven’t got a clue,” he admits. “I would like to carry on making a difference in business, and I wouldn’t go back full time to the law. But I truly don’t know what to do next.”

So whatever happens with the directive, perhaps the recruitment industry can take heart that at least one person will be calling on its services at some point in the next two years.