BURY business leaders have expressed concern at the new European Court of Justice ruling

which forces the UK government to extend the right to paid annual leave to short-term contract workers.

Andrew Ratcliff, chief executive of Bolton and Bury Chamber, said: "Changing the working time laws to entitle all workers to paid annual leave from day one could cause difficulties for employers using short term contract workers.

"More and more employers will be using contract staff to cover increased workplace absences due to new entitlements for working parents, who can now take four weeks parental leave, two weeks paid paternity leave and extended maternity leave for up to one year."

And he warned: "Employers may now face a situation where they are paying for a short term contract worker for one or two months to cover for a working parent and having to find temporary staff to cover the short term contract worker who could be due one to three days paid leave.

"This ruling is yet another example of government red tape strangling the growth of business enterprise," concluded Mr Ratcliff.