Agency Worker Guidance - Clarity or Confusion

We attended a trade representative meeting last Thursday which included a telephone conversation with the individuals crafting the final words of the guidance notes.

During that conversation we were advised that the notes would be issued on Friday and here is a link if you want to read them yourselves.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/A/11-905-agency-workers-regulations-guidance.pdf

We have met with our business lawyer, Guy Bottard of Sirius Business Law  over the weekend and our initial conclusion is that the guidance notes remain woolly and open to different interpretation.

It is noticeable that whilst the trade press has commented no leading firm of solicitors has yet offered an interpretation and that mysteries on matters such as Swedish Derogation remain.

Our intention is to work with our trade association and the Lawyers in an effort to refine the model contract we put in place more than a year ago.

We will issue a further update as soon as we have reached a conclusion.

Like others, we have no wish to spend early 2012 in employment tribunals, as clarification is made of the guidelines - something that British business as a whole could do without.

Ethically run businesses want clear guidance from all government entities and we do understand from sources that HMRC is about to clarify its position on employed/self employed and the use of umbrella companies. Why this wasn't done at least 2 years ago is another matter.

Author: Chris Slay