Five umbrella companies have been reprimanded by REC for being anti-competitive, following an investigation by its Professional Standards Committee (PSC).

REC looked into the issue when all five organisations admitted they had breached the Competition Act to the Office of Fair Trading.

As a result, REC has issued a public reprimand against the five businesses: Anders Elite, Eden Brown Ltd, Fusion People Ltd, Henry Recruitment Ltd and Randstad CPE.

Phil Westwood, chair of the REC’s PSC, said that the incidents were isolated and that all businesses had addressed the issues which created the offence, convincing the REC they had learnt their lesson.

"The wider lesson for the industry is to recognise the importance of ensuring all staff are trained to avoid anti-competitive behaviour, and that compliance with competition law is built into induction, training and company policies so that this will never happen again," he said.

Meanwhile, Alex Farrell, managing director of The IT Job Board, has said that those in the IT industry must work to gain qualifications that can catar to the market demand in the sector.