Britain’s economic recovery will be undermined and employment tribunals clogged with thousands of spurious cases unless the government rethinks its plan to introduce new rights for agency workers, employers are warning.

Britain is committed to adopting the European Union’s agency workers directive, which aims to give temporary staff the same pay and conditions as permanent workers once they have been in a workplace for more than 12 weeks, but the precise terms are bitterly disputed between employers and trade unions.