Agency Workers Regulations 2010

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are now in force. As of Saturday 1 October 2011, temporary workers who are provided through an agency will be entitled to:

1. equal treatment in regard to pay and basic employment and working conditions – this is subject to a 12-week qualifying period;
2. right of access to on-site facilities (e.g. canteen, child care facilities etc) and information about vacancies – this is from day-one of their assignment; and
3. a response to requests for information about their treatment.

In addition hirers will need to include specific information about agency workers as part of collective consultation exercises, and temporary work agencies must include the agency workers in its headcount for certain consultation thresholds.

There are limits to the Regulations, for example those who are genuinely in business on their own account should not be covered. Also, there are exceptions in relation to equal pay for agency workers who have a qualifying permanent contract of employment with the temporary work agency which provides for them to be paid between assignments.

The right to equal treatment only applies to “basic employment and working conditions”. So some terms such as pay, annual leave etc must be matched, but others do not (e.g. occupational pensions, certain types of benefits in kind, comparable contractual notice etc.).

A point to note is that the 12-week qualifying period for entitlement to equal treatment does not have to be continuous, some changes or breaks in work will end the accumulation of the qualifying period, others will put it on hold, and in some instances the qualifying period will continue to accrue when the worker is absent. Also, there are strong anti-avoidance provisions to protect against structuring assignments to avoid the Regulations.

Actions:

• identify what on-site facilities the hirer needs to provide and how vacancy information will be disseminated;
• calculate when the 12 week qualifying period is met;
• define terms of employment that must be replicated for agency workers;
• ensure exchange of the appropriate information between the three parties;
• update collective information procedures;
• train relevant managers on agency workers rights.

Adrian Fryer
Partner
adrian.fryer@hilldickinson.com
+44 (0) 151 600 8165