Agency Workers: The right to equal treatment under the 2010 act

This is the central plank of the regulations.

The overarching European legislation does under Article 5.4 allow each member state a degree of flexibility based upon an agreement between the social partners at national level and this is the debate going on at present (July 2010)

Article 5.1 defines the principle of equal treatment as:

".... The basic working and employment conditions of temporary agency workers shall be, for the duration of their assignment at a user undertaking, at least those that would apply if they had been recruited directly to occupy the same job"  

It goes on to say, using agency worker (A) in the definition that

".... the same basic working and employment conditions as A would have been entitled to for doing the same job had A been recruited by the hirer 

(a) other than by using the services of a temporary work agency; and

(b) at the time the qualifying period commence.

The qualifying period is 12 weeks and Hirers in particular need to consider their interpretation of certain crucial phrases:

"..relevant terms and conditions.."

"comparable employee"

"ordinarily included in the contracts of employees"

Anti avoidance regulations exist but there can be quite legitimate recruitment practices that differentiate between classes of employee but thorough investigation is required and independent advice and evidence of differentiation would be prudent.

Don't leave your investigation and planning to the last moment.