What are the Agency Workers Regulations? 
The new regulations derive from European legislation, designed to give temporary agency workers equal pay and employment conditions, as they would have been entitled to had they been recruited by the hirer directly to do the same job.
Whilst in other parts of the EU, this entitlement comes into effect from day one of an assignment; the UK has a qualifying period of 12 weeks.
What this means for you...
If you are a hirer of agency workers: If you are an employer and hire temporary agency workers through an agency, you will need to provide your agency with up to date information on your terms and conditions so that they can ensure that an agency worker receives the correct equal treatment, as if they were recruited directly, after 12 weeks in the same job. You are responsible for ensuring that all agency workers can access your facilities and are able to view information on your job vacancies from the first day of their assignment with you.
If you are a ‘temp' agency worker: From 1 October 2011, after you have worked in the same temporary job for 12 weeks, you will qualify for equal treatment in respect of pay and basic working conditions. You can accumulate these weeks even if you only work a few hours a week. Your temporary work agency is likely to ask for details of your work history to help establish when you are entitled to equal treatment.
If you are a temporary work agency: If you are involved in the supply of temporary agency workers, you will need to ask the hirer for information about pay and basic working conditions (when it is clear that the agency worker will be in the same job with the same hirer for more than 12 weeks) so that they are treated as if they had been directly recruited to the job.
What is Oriel doing to help reduce the impact of AWR?
We are all ensuring that we are ready for AWR. Final guidance has now been issued and therefore we must now prepare to comply as we are all responsible, avoidance is not an option. Over the coming months we will be providing our agency partners with practical help and advice on what steps we can take together to ensure full compliance and ease the administrative burden. Above all our advice is:
Prepare for the new legislation well before October 1st.
Talk to us and see how we can guide you through the legislation.
If you have any questions left unanswered, or would like more information about our services please email info@orielgroup.co.uk or call 0845 226 1843 today.
The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) have published the final guidance to help employers and the recruitment sector prepare for the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations in October.
Please click here for your copy of The Guidance.
