agency workers regulations
The Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) come into force on October 1st 2011, and will impact on all organisations that use temporary agency workers.
The aim of the Regulations is:
“To provide agency workers the entitlement to the same or no less favourable treatment with respect to basic employment and working conditions, if and when they complete a 12 week qualifying period”.
What does this mean in practice?
There are two key stages:
- Day 1 rights for all agency workers
- Equal treatment after 12 weeks.
Day 1 Rights
All Agency Workers, from 1st October 2011, will be entitled to access the same facilities and information on job vacancies as comparable permanent employees. Some of the examples given are: staff canteen, car parking, and child-care facilities.
Equal Treatment after 12 weeks
After 12 weeks in the same job/role then the Agency Worker acquires additional equal treatment rights such as:
- Pay and bonuses
- Duration of working time
- Annual leave.
The requirement is simply to treat the worker as if he or she had been recruited directly to do the same job. It will not be applied retrospectively, so for agency workers already on assignment, the 12 week qualifying period will start from 1st October 2011.
Importantly however – the Regulations do not alter agency workers’ employment status i.e. they do not make an agency worker an employee of either the hirer or the agency.
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Hirers as well as agencies will be responsible for ensuring equal treatment, therefore you need to take action now to prepare your organisation for October 1st.
How can Cranleigh help?
Our aim is to help our clients to understand the legislation and prepare for the forthcoming changes and we have put together a fact sheet that is available to download here.
We are happy to discuss any aspects of the AWR and how it may specifically affect your business and are also able to offer an ‘Impact Assessment’ at your office to enable you to implement the Regulations in a legally compliant and cost-effective manner.
Additional information can be found on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website by clicking here.