Other rights for agency workers 


The conduct of employment agencies is regulated by the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (CEAEB 03), as amended by the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2016. 


With minor exceptions (principally performers, models and professional sportspeople) it is unlawful for an agency to charge a worker to find them work. The regulations also limit the right of agencies to charge fees where a temp placed by the agency is offered a permanent job with the employer. In particular, it is unlawful for an agency to withhold pay:


• if a worker cannot produce a time sheet; or


• because the hirer has not yet paid the agency. 


The regulations require the agency, before the assignment, to provide written terms to its workers covering the following:


• confirmation as to whether the agency worker is an employee of the agency;


• pay — amount and method of calculation;


• holiday entitlement; and


• other terms of employment, including notice.


Since 1973, agencies have been banned from providing workers to replace staff taking part in official industrial action (Regulation 7, CEAEB 2003). The government intends to use secondary regulations — the draft Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2015 — to lift this ban, despite widespread opposition, including from the sector’s trade body, the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. 


Lifting the ban would place the UK in breach of International Labour Organisation (ILO) Recommendation 188 on private employment agencies which states that “private employment agencies should not make workers available to a user enterprise to replace workers of that enterprise who are on strike”. As Law at Work goes to press, consultation on the draft regulations has closed, but the government has not confirmed the lifting of the ban. For more information, see Chapter 6 — Industrial action.


The CEAEB regulations are enforced by the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI). The Immigration Act 2016 has created a new office of Director of Labour Market Enforcement and Exploitation, to oversee the activities of the EASI, as well as the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (renamed the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority) and HMRC’s national minimum wage enforcement unit.