The regulations are due to come into force in England, Scotland and Wales on 1st October.

The regulations mean that temporary workers will have the right to equal treatment with regards to pay, holidays and working conditions once they have completed a 12 week qualifying period, although they will have some rights from day one.

Who is an agency worker?
An agency worker is an individual who;
o Is supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of the hiring client
o An individual can be an agency worker even if he or she works through an intermediary such as an umbrella company. Master and neutral vendors are also included in the scope of the Regulations
o Genuinely self-employed persons* are excluded but that does not automatically mean that all Limited Company Contractors are excluded from the scope of the Regulations

* GSE are not supervised or directed by the client, for example, a plumber that comes to fix your pipes would not be supervised or directed by the hiring company.

What is equal treatment?
An agency worker is entitled to the same terms and conditions as a direct recruit of the client which includes;
o Pay
o Duration of working time
o Night work
o Rest periods
o Rest breaks
o Annual leave

What is the qualifying period?
In order to qualify for equal treatment, the qualifying period is 12 weeks in the same job for the same client (although there are two ‘day one’ rights). A qualifying week includes even 1 shift in a week. An agency worker does not have to work through the same agency either in order to continue their qualifying clock. In fact, they could have a number of qualifying clocks going at any one time. The general rule is, if there is a break of 6 weeks, the qualifying clock starts again (although there are exceptions such as pregnancy, maternity, sickness, industrial action or jury service for example).

Establishing equal treatment
The client should provide a comparable employee, someone who works at the same establishment, is doing broadly similar work and/or has a similar level of qualification and/or skills.

What does ‘pay’ mean?
o Basic pay, overtime, shift premia, unsocial hours rates
o Bonuses related to personal performance
o Commission payments
o Holiday pay
o Vouchers which have a transferable cash value (i.e. luncheon vouchers)
o Car allowance

It does not include;
o Pension
o Occupational sick pay
o Maternity, paternity and adoption pay
o Redundancy payment
o Financial participation schemes
o Bonuses related to company performance

However, in many sectors temporary workers are already currently paid more than their comparators so this may not have such an impact for some organisations in certain sectors.

Day One rights
Temporary workers will have the right to collective facilities such as canteen, childcare facilities or transport services from day one. Also included are other onsite facilities such as gym, prayer rooms, shower facilities unless the client can objectively justify the reason for not providing access.
They will also have the right to be informed by the client of relevant vacant posts although there is no obligation on the client to employ the agency worker

In addition, there are specific rights for pregnant agency workers and also anti-avoidance provisions where it is intended to prevent the agency worker from becoming entitled to equal treatment .

What should you do next?
Some agencies already employ some or their entire temporary workforce (aka the Swedish Derogation) so equal pay under AWR does not apply here although workers are entitled to the other rights provided by the Regulations.
 
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) recommends agencies do an impact assessment and has prepared a check list for its members plus a series of useful fact sheets which can be found on their website www.rec.uk.com

Agencies will need to discuss with their newly registered temporary workers where they have worked before registration and for how long, to establish where the worker might be in terms of qualifying period, in case they are sent back to a company they have already worked at via another agency.

HR professionals will need to provide agencies with comparator information where a temporary assignment is expected to extend beyond 12 weeks.

For more detailed information, FAQ’s and further guidance;
http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/a/11-949-agency-workers-regulations-guidance.pdf