New draft legislation which incorporates the EU Agency Workers Directive will protect the entitlements of recruitment agency workers, reports company compliance and corporate support services firm London Registrars (https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/).

The EU Agency Workers Directive, passed in 2010, set out to further protect temporary workers hired out to companies through recruitment agencies, with the aim of creating equal treatment and entitlements. The UK government has announced new draft legislation which will help to protect both agency workers’ entitlements and extra payments.

The draft legislation outlines that recruitment agency workers must have equal access to all facilities available to permanent, in-house workers (access to childcare, health and fitness and canteen facilities, for instance). Pregnant agency workers must be given paid time-off for ante-natal appointments, as is the case for permanent workers. Agency workers are entitled to be informed of all internal job vacancies from the first day of their assigned temporary position. After 12 weeks in the same position with the same hiring employer, agency workers are to have equal pay and working conditions entitlements, which must include annual leave and overtime.

Although there was initial trepidation from recruiters who were unclear about the scope of the extra entitlements and payments, the Recruitment and Employers Confederation (REC) said that the Government had done a fair job of clarifying these areas of confusion. Full details on the Government guidelines can be found here.
Advising on employment law and HR issues is just part of a wide spectrum of corporate and legal services available from London Registrars, including assistance with company formations and corporate governance. Find out further information at https://www.london-registrars.co.uk/.