Temporary Agency Worker Regulations laid before
Parliament
Following consultation, the BIS laid the draft Agency Workers
Regulations before Parliament on 21 January 2010. The Regulations, due
to come into force on 1 October 2011, will give agency workers the right
to the same pay, and other basic working conditions as directly
recruited staff after 12 weeks and contain some important changes to the
Draft Regulations issued for consultation in 2009.

The Implementation of
the Agency Workers Directive: response to the consultation on draft
regulations, BIS, January 2010 sets out the approach taken to
the implementation of the Regulations and gives details of the key
provisions. The final Regulations have now been laid before Parliament,
but have yet to be published in their final form. They will come into
force on 1 October 2011. The approach to the scope of the equal
treatment regime remains much as previously proposed, subject to some
minor changes. There are, however, two key changes.

The first is that the “equal treatment” pay provisions now include
bonuses that are directly related to the work of the agency worker.
Vouchers or stamps with a monetary value, such as luncheon vouchers,
will also be included. Occupational pensions and sick pay, however,
remain excluded from the concept of pay.

The second is the introduction of anti-avoidance provisions, giving
agency workers the right to bring a claim to a tribunal if a structure
of assignments develop for which the most likely explanation is an
intention to deprive them of equal treatment rights, e.g. a rotation
between a series of 11 weeks assignments in substantially different
roles.  A successful claimant will be entitled to an award of up to
£5,000.