Employers using recruitment agencies to find momentary or irreversible workers have particular responsibilities.

Recruitment agencies that discover staff for other organizations, but pay the personnel themselves, are understood as 'em ployment services'.

If you take on employees through an employment business, they're responsible for ensuring the workers' rights under working time and base pay rules.

Recruitment firms providing workers for farming, food processing, horticultural and shellfish-gathering industries are known as 'gangmasters' - if you utilize one, you require to make certain they are licensed gangmasters.

Employers' duties

As a company, you're responsible for:

- agency employees' health and security
- ensuring they have the exact same access to shared facilities as other workers
- letting them understand about appropriate job vacancies in your business

However, you can stop offering work to a firm employee, as long as they're not employed by you.

Additional rights after 12 weeks

After 12 weeks in the same task, agency employees are entitled to the exact same terms and conditions as staff members doing the very same or comparable work. This consists of:

- pay
- working time, rest durations and breaks
- night work
- yearly leave
- time off for antenatal visits for pregnant employees

For more information, see guidance on agency employee guidelines.

Transfer costs

Recruitment agencies can charge a transfer fee if you utilize an employee straight, or an employee is supplied to you through another recruitment firm after their initial agreement. Recruitment firms must tell you in your contract if they intend to charge you transfer costs.

When an agency employee starts work with you, a recruitment agency can only charge a transfer charge if you take the employee on within either of the following durations, whichever ends later on:

- 8 weeks of completion of their last assignment with you
- 14 weeks of the start of their very first assignment with you

If there has actually been a break of 42 days in between the worker's projects with you, the 14 weeks will start from the start date of the most recent task.

The recruitment firm may also charge you a transfer charge if:

- you present a worker to a 3rd party who then utilizes them throughout this period
- you utilize an employee introduced to you by a recruitment agency before they have begun their task with you through the firm

Extended hire period

If you employ an employee supplied to you by a recruitment firm, the agency needs to use you a prolonged hire period rather of charging you a transfer fee. This indicates they would continue to provide the employee to you for a predetermined period without changing the terms of the project. Once the agreed duration ends, you would use the employee straight with no transfer cost.

A recruitment company might charge you a transfer charge if they present an employee to you and you use them:

- before they start resolve the recruitment company
- through a different company, before they start overcome the introducing recruitment company

In both cases, the presenting agency must use the choice of a hire duration instead of charging you a transfer charge. The terms of this hire period must be set out in your contract with the recruitment company.