Since the introduction of the European Regulations 2000 directive, new rights were given to part time employees. The new legislation ensures equal treatment of both full and part time employees, and was instated by the government in order to further enforce its policy of creating standards for the promotion of a work force that is flexible, yet can compete with other countries.

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Part time employees are now entitled to equal hourly rates, the same benefits in terms of pension schemes, paid leave, sick pay and job training. Under the new legislation it does not matter if the part time employee was hired by the company direct or is working under contract to an external agency.

When is an employee part time?
An employee who works more than 35 hours per week is considered to be a full time worker, so in order to be described as a part time employee, the total amount of worked hours per week must be less than 35 within the same firm. These are generally accepted definitions, without any official legislation on the subject.

Benefits of hiring part time personnel
Hiring part time employees increases the flexibility of a company's work force, which in turn enables them to manage their work load more efficient, with an increased productivity as a result. For full time employees, the arrival of part time employees usually means relief from over time, and more stress on the job. Due to the increased flexibility, for companies it enables them to select from a larger amount of eligible candidates for the positions, and makes them more flexible in terms of ability to react to changes in their industry.

In today's market, companies are looking more and more at part time employees, to add to their work force. In the United Kingdom alone over 7 million workers are working part time, which equals 1 in 4 of the entire work force, which ranks the UK almost at the top in terms of the percentage working part time throughout the entire European community, with only the Netherlands above it.