Amendments made to Agency Workers Regulations
Employment Law & HR update 16/08/2011
The Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2011 have been
published by the government this week.
The new regulations – which have been in the pipeline for some
time - will amend the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which are
due to come into force on 1st October.
The Regulations ensure that agency workers have the same rights
to pay, holidays and benefits as a permanent staff member following
12 weeks on the job.
The amendments correct some drafting errors in the original
regulations which could have caused confusion about which workers
they apply to.
A significant change concerns Regulation 10, which applies to
agency workers who have an employment contract with an agency under
which they are paid between assignments. This has now been amended
to make it clear that the agency's obligations to pay the agency
worker - and to attempt to source relevant work when the worker is
out of work and looking - only apply following the end of the first
job under that contract.
Chairman of the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC),
Adrian Marlowe, said, “The ARC has long pressed for a change to
[Regulation 10] to address the anomaly that would arise if there is
no break in an assignment, leaving the employer unable to comply
with the conditions required to avoid the agency worker’s
entitlement to equal pay.
“The amendment made addresses that issue to a large extent by
providing that the obligation only arises after the end of the
first assignment under the employment contract. As a result it
should significantly reduce the prospect of claims being made on
technical grounds,” he added.
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