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Agency Workers Regulations

New employment laws for temporary staff come into force on 01 October 2011, in the form of the EU's Agency Workers Regulations (AWR). In the run-up to October, we will help you to prepare for the regulations, with a series of events and updates.

A draft version of the official guidance on the Agency Workers Regulations has now been published on the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) website. This information is extremely important for any company who uses temporary workers. Please click here view the guidelines.

Preparing for AWR
Temporary workers play a vital role for many businesses. The CBI estimates that over five percent of the UK's workforce are engaged as agency workers. AWR will grant this group of temporary workers the same basic working and employment conditions as their permanently-employed colleagues.

These rights come into force once the agency worker has spent 12 weeks in the same role, at which point they are entitled to equal rights covering:

  • pay
  • rest periods and breaks
  • annual leave entitlements
  • working time protection, and
  • night working

In terms of pay, temporary staff are entitled to the same levels of fees, overtime, commission and holiday pay. The regulations do however exclude occupational benefits such as pensions, profit-related schemes, and maternity and sick pay over and above the statutory minimum.

Anti-avoidance measures will be in place to discourage companies from 'rotating' temporary staff around different roles in order to avoid the 12 week qualification period. And, as with most areas of employment law, there are hefty financial penalties for getting it wrong.

October may seem a while away yet but time flies all too quickly and Key Personnel recommends that you address these four points as soon as possible:

  • Talk to your recruitment agency about AWR and ensure they are fully up-to-speed with the legislation. Key Personnel offer in-house briefings to companies that would like to understand more about the new rules.
  • Assess how the changes, particularly to pay and benefits, will impact on your budgets and cost this into your projections.
  • Mitigate the risk of non-compliance by keeping your recruitment agency up-to-date with accurate information on rates of pay and hours etc.
  • Keep accurate records of agency worker assignments. Key Personnel will provide clients with weekly reports on agency staff and their qualifying periods.

By planning ahead and putting in place the right procedures, we can work together to make sure that AWR isn't a headache for your business. For help or information on any aspect of the regulations, please contact Mary Hendry on 0121 233 2335 or maryhendry@keypersonnel.co.uk.