people standing in a row Home | News & events | Legal updates | Agency worker changes under review

Agency worker changes under review

07 July 2010

The new government has confirmed that the controversial Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are being reviewed – before they have even come into force.

The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills confirmed to the House of Commons on 5 July that the Government is reviewing the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (the Regulations), which are due to come into force on 1st October 2011.

The regulations currently provide for equal treatment for agency workers in respect of basic working and employment conditions after 12 weeks in an assignment.

The regulations are complex. Employers’ groups have taken issue with some of the requirements and other commentators have criticised the drafting as unclear and open to different interpretations in places.

Earlier this year a Parliamentary committee also criticised some of the drafting and recommended it be amended.

Agencies and organisations using agency workers should not get too excited by this development, however.

The regulations are intended to implement the European Directive on temporary agency work (2008/104/EC), which must be implemented by all Member States by 5 December 2011.

The UK Government must ensure that it properly implements the directive’s requirements and has no latitude to depart from these in our domestic legislation.

Any amendments to the regulations are therefore likely to be relatively minor, because any that risk going beyond the parameters laid down by the directive are likely to be subject to legal challenge in the future.
 
Agency Workers Regulations SI 2010/93
Directive 2008/104/EC

© Shoosmiths. This page is for general information: it is not legal advice. Please read our full terms and conditions for details of the disclaimers and exclusions which apply.

Are any of the issues in this article giving you a headache? If so, we want to know

Name *

Comments*

The information you provide here will be used solely for the purposes of responding to your query for more information see our privacy policy.
 

Get in touch

Eugene Wojciechowski

Partner
T: 03700 86 8998
I: +44 (0)118 965 8998
E: erwoj@shoosmiths.co.uk