Agency Workers Regulations

Tomorrow’s date October 1, 2011 has been looming over us as recruiters for a long time. It’s deadline day for the introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations – a day we’ve been preparing for for around two years.

Yet still there are some companies, mainly small to medium sized ones, which haven’t taken steps to ensure compliance. This may be a ‘head in the sand’ tactic or it may be that they’re not aware it will affect them. But it will.

Every company which uses temporary staff needs to be aware of the legislation and have a policy of implementation.

In short, the AWR brings the terms of basic working and employment condition for temporary agency workers in line with comparable permanent members of staff. Some of their entitlements kick in from day one – such as access to collective facilities and amenities, for instance canteens and child care facilities. Others such as holiday entitlement start after 12 weeks.

The reality is that the majority of temporary staff, who provide a hugely valuable service, are already well treated and rewarded. The regulations will simply provide a safety net.

Like many agencies, we have invested a substantial amount of time and effort in preparing for the implementation and helping our clients prepare. We hope those efforts will help inspire confidence among our clients.

For those who haven’t yet sought advice or help, it’s not too late – in fact it’s a necessity to avoid falling foul of the legislation and potentially facing legal action.

We can provide a free assessment of your situation to ensure you have all the necessary processes in place – please get in touch.

Shocking statistics woke up Peterborough’s HR world

Around 200 HR professionals from Peterborough received a shock over their breakfast coffee on Tuesday morning!

At the annual Employment Law Briefing we organise with Hegarty LLP Solicitors, Martin Bloom – the employment partner there - warned the amount of discrimination claims could double from 285,000 this year.

That’s an expert saying there could be half a million disgruntled employees bringing claims against the companies they work for – that’s not only a big number that’s also a substantial increase.

Much of that rise will come as a result of the new strands of discrimination brought in by last year’s Equality Act. It’s only now that the effects of the act are starting to be felt.

The main change is all to do with associative and perceptive discrimination rules. The Equality Acts names ‘protected characteristics’ – these include race, sex, religion, sexual orientation and age. It is against the law to discriminate against someone for any of these characteristics. It is now also against the law to discriminate against someone ‘on the grounds of the protected characteristic’ but not necessarily that person’s own protected characteristic. Thankfully Martin’s real life example explained it more clearly than the law does! A woman was the victim of disability discrimination when she was treated less favourably because she cared for her disabled son.

Similarly, a case of perceived discrimination: a man who wasn’t either gay or believed to be gay but who was subjected to ‘banter and innuendo’ on the grounds he went to public school and lived in Brighton successfully brought an harassment case.

This widens the net for victims of discrimination and is something all HR professionals need to be aware of.

Also discussed during the seminar were statutory sick pay and case law.
As always the seminar was fascinating and we are delighted to be able to continue our association with Hegartys in organising it.

Employment Law Briefing

The rules governing sick pay date back to 1992 which is why they haven’t been on the agenda at our employment law briefings in a while. That’s why we felt it was worth revisiting them at this year’s event, being held on September 20th.

With the average worker absent from work for 8.4 days a year, around £10-£12 billion of productivity is lost annually in this country. Managing sickness absence is a big issue. Our very able presenters from Hegarty’s will not only be helping delegates brush up on the rules but will offer some tips about how best to address long term, short term and unauthorised absence among employees.

Also being discussed at the seminar are the two new strands of discrimination introduced by last year’s Equality Act. Associative and perceptive discrimination are entirely new aspects and quite complicated to get a handle on. Plenty of case studies will be shared to help explain the necessary definitions and interpretations.

We’ve been organising the employment law seminar in association with Hegarty’s for more than a decade. As in previous years, we are expecting around 200 HR professionals from the Greater Peterborough area to attend.

We like to think it’s the subject matter and the professionalism of the presenters rather than just the offer of a free breakfast that encourages them to get up early! If you’re not averse to an early alarm call, there are a few places left so do get in touch if you’d like to come.

AWR podcast part 2

The Guidelines for the AWR, drawn up by the Government, run to 49 pages. Employment law expert Martin Bloom talked through those guidelines and gave further examples of how the Regulations may be interpreted at our employment law briefing.

He made the point that there are many caveats, inclusions and exclusions and that, in some cases, definitive answers will only emerge when the regulations are tested at tribunal level.

This podcast was recorded during Martin’s presentation at the employment law seminar and gives further information on calculating the 12 week qualifying period, the definitions of pay and compliance information.

CLICK TO LISTEN TO PODCAST

Student awards – we were there!

I was delighted to attend this year’s Peterborough Regional College’s student awards just last week. This is the third year we’ve been involved through the sponsorship of the Best Business Student category.

The ceremony provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the students – and there was a long stream of them being rewarded for their efforts and hard work over the last year.

Celebrity speaker Kanya King (an MBE no less), the founder of the MOBO awards, gave a stirring speech and presented the students with their awards.

‘Our’ winner was Indre Rackauskaite who came up on stage to receive her award.

Her tutors said: “Indre consistently has produced good quality assignment work, regularly passing it at first attempt. She is conscientious in her approach, has performed her duties as a course representative properly and has travelled up from Level 1 through to Level 3 with high grades throughout.”

That’s certainly a good recommendation to have on your CV!

Indre struck me as a very competent young lady and I am sure she will build on the success she has had at college as she steps onto the career ladder.

As always the ceremony itself felt very fitting and definitely a celebration for the students. I came away feeling very upbeat and positive and I was just presenting an award!

REC webinar

Some very interesting facts and figures were showcased during a webinar hosted by our industry body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. Our recruitment partner Karen Dykes took part in the ‘event’ and was buzzing with both information and ideas afterwards.

The webinar itself was excellently executed. The Chief Executive Officer Kevin Green spoke and shared a lot of up to date information and forecasts from the industry.
Those taking part, and there were around 130 recruiters from across the country, were able to vote in real time on subjects Kevin was discussing, giving a brilliant snapshot of both opinion and what’s happening at a local level.

Karen is now investigating the possibility of how we could use webinars to host seminars along the lines of our regular employment law briefings – a great way to get even more people together without anyone having to leave their desks.

Much was made during the webinar about the added value agencies should offer their clients.

That’s something we’ve always believed very strongly in, and aimed to offer from day one of the business.

There were lots of suggestions made along the lines of being a ‘true partner’ and ‘investing in clients’. We believe that’s key to a successful working relationship. Unless you know your clients, their business, their ethos and their culture how can you find the right fit for their recruitment requirements?

In fact, we had a lovely compliment from a client the other day who said ‘ACR ‘gets us’. As an agency, we couldn’t provide the service our clients deserve if we didn’t invest time in understanding them.

There was talk of ‘widening the offering’, which included ideas such as training temps, providing testing and adding HR services. It was as the CEO Kevin Green talked through these things that we realised it read like a tick list of our services!

The whole team believes strongly in our brand and our offering but it was good to have some outside confirmation that what we do every day is exactly the kind of template that other agencies are now being encouraged to work towards.

Will the AWR affect your business?

The Agency Workers Regulations will affect your business if you have a tripart arrangement with an agency to supply temporary staff. If that three-way agreement - where a worker is hired through an agency by a business – isn’t in place then the Regulations won’t affect your business.

If that agreement does exist, the Regulations WILL affect your business and you need to ensure you are up to speed with exactly what that will mean when they come into force on October 1.

In this podcast – recorded at our employment law briefing - employment law expert Martin Bloom of Hegarty LLP Solicitors explains the importance of comparable employees, the rights the Regulations will give temporary staff and from when, and where the liability lies.

CLICK TO LISTEN TO PODCAST