The Governments moves to give temporary workers the same employment rights as permanent staff, have been put on hold. Although the clear majority of Europes employment ministers backed the legislation, Germany joined Britain in blocking it. Business Secretary John Hutton argued that it would damage flexibility in the labour market and that there were concerns that firms would be put off employing temporary staff. However, angry unionists said the UKs block shows the government is unwilling to take modest measures to ensure the temps are given proper rights as employees. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation believes even if it eventually passed, the directive would fail to protect agency workers from exploitation.