Glossary · UK
What is Agency Worker Regulations?
Statutory rights for temporary workers supplied through an employment agency, giving day-one rights to access certain facilities and, after 12 weeks in the same role, equal pay and basic working conditions to comparable directly-employed staff.
Full Definition
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give temporary workers supplied by an employment business (agency) to a hirer (the end-user business) two tiers of protection. From their first day in a new assignment, agency workers have the right to access the same collective facilities as directly-employed staff, such as a staff canteen, workplace crèche, and transport services, and to be informed of any relevant vacancies with the hirer so they have the same opportunity as directly-employed staff to apply for permanent roles. After completing a 12-week qualifying period in the same role with the same hirer -- calculated on a calendar-week basis and not broken by short gaps of up to six weeks between assignments in some circumstances -- an agency worker becomes entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as if they had been recruited directly by the hirer for the same role, most significantly including equal pay (calculated against what a comparable directly-recruited employee doing the same job would receive), as well as equal treatment on matters such as the duration of working time, night work, rest periods, and annual leave. The qualifying 12-week clock resets, and protection is lost, if the worker moves to a substantively different role with the same hirer, though it is not reset by minor changes to the role that do not amount to a genuinely different job. Some agencies previously used the "Swedish derogation," a provision that allowed agencies to opt out of the equal pay requirement (though not the other equal treatment rights) provided the worker was employed directly by the agency (rather than assignment-by-assignment) and guaranteed a minimum level of pay between assignments -- this derogation was abolished from 6 April 2020 following evidence it was being used to undercut agency workers' pay rather than for its intended purpose of providing job security between assignments. Agency workers also retain other standard statutory rights common to all workers, such as the National Minimum Wage, statutory holiday entitlement, and protection from unlawful deductions, regardless of whether the 12-week qualifying period has been completed.