From 1st October 2011 the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) came in to effect and is now a key piece of legislation for UK employers.
The AWR extends certain (although not total) equal treatment rights to temporary workers regarding pay, holiday entitlement and working conditions once they have completed a 12 week client qualifying period.
An agency worker is defined as an individual who is contracted to perform work and services on a temporary basis. However they must be in the same work placement with the same employer for at least 12 weeks. This is termed the ‘qualifying period’. The amount of hours worked within each of these 12 weeks isn’t relevant so long as the gap between each day of work isn’t more than 6 weeks unless due to sickness of pregnancy. In this case they will still accrue time towards their 12 week qualifying period.
The AWR legislation helps to ensure that an agency worker is entitled to the same “relevant terms and conditions” as a comparable employee of the hirer in terms of pay, rest breaks and annual leave.
For a more in-depth description of the Agency Workers Regulations click here.
