Agency workers

Agency Workers are not employees of your Company and as such will not have the rights to claim unfair dismissal, redundancy pay or maternity leave, or benefits such as occupational sick pay, company pension schemes or bonus payments based on company performance.  The responsibility and liabilities sit with the agency that provided you with the worker. 

However agency workers do have certain rights:

Day 1 rights for all agency workers

If you hire agency workers, you must ensure that they have they can access your facilities (such as canteen, childcare facilities, etc.) and information on your job vacancies from the first day of their assignment.

After 12 weeks in the same job:

These rights relate to the same level of pay and other basic working conditions (annual leave, overtime, shift allowances, bonuses).  These come into effect after an agency worker completes a 12 week qualifying period in the same job with the same hirer. Pregnant agency workers will now be allowed to take paid time off for ante-natal appointments during an assignment.

The benefits will apply after the worker has been engaged for 12 weeks regardless of their working pattern (e.g. full or part time).  A new qualifying period will only begin if a new assignment with the same hirer is substantively different, or if there is a break of more than six weeks between assignments in the same role.  The 12 weeks qualifying period can be paused if the worker takes annual leave, certified sick leave or time off for public duties.