DTI announces Agency Regulations
More than 500,000 temporary workers, ranging from office staff to models and actors, will 'enjoy greater protection from exploitation and be able to move from temporary to permanent work more easily' according to the DTI's Industry Minister as he published the new employment rules.
According to the Government, the new proposed agency regulations will 'provide much needed flexibility to an industry which is proving itself a key player in today's flexible labour markets and the knowledge driven economy.'
Last year the private recruitment industry grew by over 20 per cent and had a turnover of more than £20.8 billion, generated in sectors including IT, entertainment, construction and caring and medical support.
The regulations will:
* establish a hiring extension option as an alternative to employers having to pay agents a fee when they wish to offer temporary staff permanent employment to 'ensures a guaranteed return for agencies and give employers and temps greater flexibility';
* introduce clearer contracts so that temps know they are engaged by their agency. This will 'end confusing arrangements and will stop elderly or vulnerable people from finding themselves responsible for ensuring their carer's contract complies with minimum wage and other regulations';
* protect workers from having their CVs circulated indiscriminately either on the Internet or by other means;
* toughen controls on bogus advertisements, both in print and on the
Internet, such as those which advertise non-existent jobs
* ban agencies from charging models and entertainers before they have arranged work for them;
* ensure agents use properly controlled client accounts when handling workers' earnings, for example when receiving entertainers' wages;
* stronger protection for parents using nanny agencies. Nanny agencies will be required to take all reasonably practicable steps to confirm a work-seeker is not unsuitable and must offer parents copies of at least two references obtained.
Announcing details of the new regulations Industry Minister Alan
Johnson said: "Temporary workers play an important part in our economy, working both in and out of the public eye. These reforms will curb the activities of agencies that prey on vulnerable work-seekers, as well as giving more flexibility and contracting three separate sets of rules into one.
"These measures provide a clear legal framework which give a further competitive boost to a thriving industry. I'm sure the industry will welcome these much needed reforms, they know that a disreputable minority can smear the entire industry.
"There is evidence that some agencies have used transfer fees as a means of blocking entry into permanent employment. The new regulations will help hirers and workers without damaging the legitimate concerns of agencies who need to ensure that they are not being used as a recruitment service.
"Where a hiring has lasted more than 6 weeks before finishing, an agency will not be able to charge a transfer fee if the worker is employed permanently by that employer, more than 8 weeks after the original hiring ceased."
The new regulations provide that an employment agency cannot enforce any contractual term contingent upon a worker taking up employment with an employer (e.g. a transfer fee) unless the hirer has the option of an extended hire period. Where a hiring has ceased no contractual term can be enforced after the later of either 8 weeks from the day after the last day of hire or 14 weeks starting from the first day of hire.
Welcoming the revised temp-to-perm proposals Tim Nicholson, Chief
Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, said: "We welcome the Government's announcement on temp-to-perm. It is a significant step forward from the original proposal of four weeks. It demonstrates that good working relationships have developed between the REC and government, and that the industry's case has received careful attention."
Comments are invited by 16 March and the regulations are expected to come into force in the summer.
The new regulations replace the Conduct of Employment Agencies and
Employment Business Regulations 1976, the Employment Agencies Act
1973 (Charging Fees to Workers) Regulations 1976 and the Employment
Agencies Act 1973 (Charging Fees to Au Pairs) Regulations 1981.
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Susie Hughes