Only 41 per cent of companies in the UK employ seasonal workers, according to new research by The Work Foundation.

The main reason for using temporary staff is that they are flexible, the study found.

A spokeswoman for the DTI told ePolitix.com: "Temporary work is important to business flexibility and suits many temporary workers' lifestyles. And this survey shows it can be a way into permanent jobs for those who want them.

"It is good news that conditions for temporary staff have improved. Government action to make sure fixed-term employees have parity with permanent ones has brought real benefits."

Forum Response: The Work Foundation

Nick Isles, deputy director of advocacy at The Work Foundation, said: "We have witnessed irreversible changes in work. Flexibility is a real area of business necessity and organisations are using temporary working to deliver that last vital few per cent of advantage.

"Flexible working, such as annualised hours, is dramatically changing the needs for temporary workers, as are other developments such as the use of older staff to inject knowledge into a business. To quite some degree, this explains why there seem to be fewer and fewer summer jobs.

"One excellent trend is the greater parity being given to temporary staff. Managers understand the need to engage all their people and that they can expect a better job if they treat staff fairly. The other main ingredients for best practice in this area are taking care with recruitment, taking care with contracts and forming good relationships with proven recruiters and agencies."

Forum Response: Institute of Directors

A spokesman for the IoD told ePolitix.com: "Businesses are increasingly realising the benefits of using temporaryworkers.

"'Temps' also provide vital flexibility to the UK labour market, boosting economic performance. Temps themselves often appreciate the flexibility of fixed-term contracts."

Forum Response: Federation of Small Businesses

David Bishop, deputy head of press and parliamentary affairs at the FSB, told ePolitix.com: "The Work Foundation report confirms that the use of agency and fixed term workers is a well established part of business life in the United Kingdom ina way that it isn't in many other countries.

"These workers provide vital labour force flexibility allowing small businesses to cover parental leave, long-term absence and staff shortages.

"In most cases firms offer temporary staff the full range of benefits available to permanent employees and do soto enable them to attract the best people.

"The Work Foundation report confirms this and gives the UK government further ammunition to resist some of the more over-prescriptive legislation currently under discussion in the European Commission such as the temporary agency workers directive."

Forum Response: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Mike Emmott, head of public policy at the CIPD, told ePolitix.com: "This is interesting research and confirms our own findings that companies use temps to provide flexibility and that on the whole they are well treated - they are not the abused minority.

"I don't think that this report in any way undermines the resistance by employees and by the DTI toward the draft agency workers directive in its present form."