In addition to the rights as workers to receive a Section 1 Statement of terms and conditions, agency workers will also benefit from the following from 6 April 2020:
- After 12 weeks, agency workers will have to pay parity with comparable workers engaged directly by the hirer regardless of whether or not the agency workers were employed by the agency between assignments (known as the Swedish Derogation). By 30 April 2020, any agency workers who were employed with a Swedish Derogation provision in their contract, must receive notification that such provision no longer applies and that they are entitled to pay parity with their comparators at the hirer. If the agency fails to provide such a statement and the agency worker complains, they may not suffer any detriment as a result and may have grounds to bring an unfair dismissal claim against the agency if they are dismissed.
- From 6 April, all agency workers must be provided with a “Key Information Document” before they agree on terms with the employment business (i.e. temp agency). The Key Information Document should be no longer than two sides of A4, written in clear and simple terms and contain certain prescribed information about the relationship between the worker, the employment business and the hirer. The primary objective is for the agency workers to get clarity about their pay and deductions, and so a working example of how deductions will affect take-home pay must be included. There are additional requirements for those agency workers engaged via umbrella or personal service companies. The employment business has a duty to provide a revised document within five days of the change and must keep a record that the Key Information Document was provided to the agency worker for 12 months after the end of the last assignment.
- The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate will be responsible for enforcing these rights and obligations, but how and when is currently unclear.