Employers who make use or may make use of temporary staff supplied by recruitment companies should be aware of forthcoming changes in the law in this area.
New Agency Workers Regulations have been passed by Parliament and are scheduled to come into force on 1 October 2011.
Broadly speaking, the Regulations ensure that after 12 weeks in a particular job, agency workers will be entitled to the same treatment in respect of their main terms of employment (including pay, working time, holidays) as if they had been recruited directly by the “hirer” as an employee. Agency workers will also be entitled to information about the hirer’s vacancies to give them the same chance as other workers to find permanent employment. We will be providing further details at a later session.
Contact
Douglas Strang
(Information posted in February 2010 and may not have been updated at time of reading).