An “agency worker” is defined as an individual who is supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of a hirer. They have a contract of employment or contract to perform work and services personally with the temporary work agency.

The Agency Workers Regulations 2010  are a legislation forming part of UK labour law. They aim to counter discrimination of people who work for employment agencies, by clarifying that agency workers should non the less be favourably treated in salary and working hours than their full time job counterparts, who do the same work. It gives effect in UK law to the Temporary and Agency Workers

The basic concept of the (AWR) Agency Workers Regulations  is to give effect to the Temporary and Agency Workers Directive in UK  law. They require employers to treat agency workers and permanent staff equally in their contract terms on the following ,

  1. Duty hours and holiday duration
  2. Salary, including sick pay
  3. Time off for looking after their kids (for females only)
  4. Discrimination law (Although this seems unnecessary as agency workers were already bound by the Equality Act 2010.

On the First of October 2011, a long-discussed change to employment occured that has potential consequences for every company who employs the services of one of Britain’s 1.3 million temporary agency workers. According to the new Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) agency workers will, after 12 weeks of work on an assignment, be eligible to the same basic working and employment conditions
that they would have been entitled to had they been recruited directly by the organisation to do the same job.

Agencies and hirers will be separately responsible for ensuring that they stick to the regulations , and non-compliance can result in either one or both parties being taken to tribunal. Workarounds, or ‘sham’ arrangements, such as deliberate task changes or repeated employment tenures below 12 weeks, will
not be tolerated and could result in a £5,000 fine.

Previously Adecco commissioned an independent research consultancy to speak to one hundred decision makers in the Human Resource profession, in organisations that regularly use temporary workers, to assess the
levels of awareness, understanding and preparedness for the AWR. The resulting 2010 AWR survey found evidence of confusion, lack of information and inertia surrounding the regulations.

In March 2011, Adecco has updated the survey to see how these views have changed. Again speaking to 100 decision makers in the Human Resource  profession, in organisations that regularly use temporary
workers, the 2011 AWR survey assessed the levels of understanding, concern and activity as implementation was near.

Key findings from that 2011 ‘Is British business ready?’ AWR survey included:

Professionals still have gaps in their understanding at that time
• 99% have heard of the AWR
• 41% have a ‘clear understanding’ of it
• 57% admit to gaps in their knowledge

Concern remains high
• 55% describe themselves as ‘very’ or ‘quite’ concerned about the impact of the AWR
• 62% agree that additional spend could be the main implication of the AWR
• However, 48% feel that it will have no impact on the number of temporary staff hired in their business

Now that Four months have passed since the Agency Workers Regulations(AWR) went into effect in the United Kingdom, and some of its effects are apparent now. One of them is the so-called Swedish Derogation.

Swedish Derogation refers to an dropped out clause negotiated by the Swedish delegation to the E.U when the Agency Workers Directive (AWD), on which the United kingdom’s AWR is founded, was formed. In Short, it states that  temp workers who are employed on a full-time contract by an agency or an umbrella company do not fall under the equal salary provisions of the Agency Worker Directives.

The Swedes bargained for this drop-out because agencies are directly responsible for the employment of all temporary workers in Sweden . According to this model, the recruitment agency remains the legal employer of the temporary workers and is responsible for paying workers during their  assignments as well as handing over additional payments in-case the contract is terminated prematurely.

One of the Unions arguments is that the Swedish Derogation is a tool to exploit temporary workers. Tom Hadley, who is the head of policy and professional services at the (REC) Recruitment and Employment Confederation , denies that claim. “According to him, the Swedish Derogation can be seen as great news for temporary workers who are interested to work in this flexible way as it is meant to provid extra security and essentially  means that their job is sort of  permanent job,” .

Swedish Derogation provides a new and interesting model that employers can consider in using contingent labor, but it is already clear that only a minority will opt for it. For those that do, it is important to recognize that Swedish Derogation does not remove workers from the scope of the AWR entirely. Although this model does take temporary workers out of scope of the equal salary provision, those employed under Swedish Derogation also refered as  Regulation 10, contracts are still entitled to day one rights, such as access to collective facilities and to all other equal treatment provisions following 12 consecutive weeks in the same role with the same employer.

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