BOSSES at the Cowley Mini plant say it is to early to outline their policy should a new law boosting the rights of agency workers be introduced next year.

The proposed Agency Workers Regulations will give temporary staff the right to the same pay, holidays and other conditions as their full-time colleagues if they have been in the same job for 12 weeks.

It will mean Mini parent company BMW, which has 800 agency staff at the plant, will have to rethink its strategy on staffing as critics claim it will reduce workforce flexibility.

The move is also likely to mean the company will be unable to axe staff with little notice as it did last February, when 850 agency staff were laid off after the weekend shift was scrapped.

Almost all those jobs have since been replaced, bringing the plant’s total workforce to about 3,700.

The Agency Workers Regulations have now been laid before Parliament with the Government keen to make them law before the General Election in May.

If passed, it would come into force in autumn next year.

Mini plant spokesman Rebecca Baxter said: “Following the announcement, we are currently examining the implications for the business. As yet it is too early to say what these may be.”

Ms Baxter added that since the turn of the year, seven agency staff who were providing holiday cover had been laid off.