Final AWR guidance published

The BIS has published the final guidelines on the Agency Workers Regulations.

The guidelines vary very little from the draft published last month, with mostly just tweaks to clarify wording.

However, de Poel’s Commercial Director Paul Farmer beileves the guidance in general has helped with some points:

“Amongst other things they provide greater clarity on Regulation 10 and the use of the Swedish derogation contract of employment. In particular, we were delighted to see that the 4 weeks at half pay or NMW will not have to be paid if the agency worker resigns.”

In a statement Employment Relations Minister Ed Davey said:

“The agency sector is a key part of the UK’s flexible labour market. It provides the flexibility needed for employers to meet surges in demand, cover temporary absences or cope with seasonal fluctuations and provides a route into employment for thousands of individuals.

“We looked carefully at the possibility of amending the Regulations to address employers’ concerns but were forced to conclude that we could not do so without putting the 12-week qualifying period at risk. This qualification period is something that is a key flexibility that we know is vital to business.

“Our focus therefore has been on providing the best possible guidance to help everyone affected understand these regulations.”

de Poel, the number one procurer of temporary agency labour, is holding Agency Workers Regulations seminars later this month to discuss the final guidance and give some expert advice.

To find out more visit our website.

To download the final guidelines click here.

AWR: Do you know your temp costs?

The introduction of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) is forcing organisations to obtain more accurate details regarding their temporary agency labour spend.  The truth is that most organisations do not know their expenditure regarding temporary agency labour, where it is being allocated or how costs are being calculated.  We regularly hear organisations estimating their spend with a variance of millions.

For example, they might say: “it’s between £5 and £7 million” – quite a big difference – though not surprising in light of the nature of the temporary agency labour market. In fact, we find this kind of guess work quite common among even the largest of organisations.  Often individual locations are responsible for employing their own temporary agency workforce as and when it is needed, allowing costs to creep up unbeknown to head office. The irony is that this has an impact on the whole organisation and its yearly temporary agency labour expenditure, though it goes largely undetected by heads of procurement and finance.

Evidently, we have found that even if a company’s estimations of yearly spend are accurate, the number of firms who are aware of their spend by specific location, job type, supplier and working time, not to mention how the specific charge rates are made up and calculated, remains extremely low. And yet… this information will be key to implementation of the AWR.

At de Poel’s AWR seminar being held this Thursday (January 20th) at The Midland, Manchester we will demonstrate how simple technology can provide transparency over a quite often invisible spend.

AWR Seminar

de Poel’s first AWR seminar taking place on Thursday 20^th January, Midland Hotel Manchester, will provide some of the UK’s largest organisations with much needed practical advice on the implementation of the AWR.

Rather than simply repeating detail within the regulations, the de Poel seminar will be providing the opportunity for organisations to discuss their key concerns, including damage to reputation if found not adhering to the regulations, ensuring continuous compliance, and of course, the overall cost of the regulations.

As the number one procurer of temporary agency labour in the UK, with a client base which covers a wide spectrum of industry sectors such as care, construction, logistics, retail, manufacturing, facilities management, finance, waste management, hotel and leisure, de Poel’s insight regarding the trends of temporary agency workers will prove an invaluable source of knowledge.

Agency Workers Regulations…the key facts

Since the confirmation of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR), due to come into force October 2011, there appears to have been a multitude of workshops, forums, conferences and seminars all professing to present ‘expert’ advice on tackling the implementation of the AWR.

Recruitment agencies, law firms and professional bodies all attempted to present key facts and clarity regarding the regulations.  However, most attendees of such events were left disappointed.

Why? Organisations are not being told the key facts like, how to prepare, how will it affect them, what will it cost them, and most importantly how will they continue to operate with a temporary workforce whilst complying to such legislation? The omission of these key questions are beginning to annoy the organisations that are scrambling around the country, attending these seminars, looking for answers.

This week de Poel, the number one procurer of temporary agency labour in the UK, launches their first AWR Seminar.  The objective is clear. To provide all the unanswered questions and propose a solution to the now almost rhetoric, ‘how will organisations continue to operate with their temporary agency workforce’?

The audience will be made up of the largest blue chip organisations in the UK, who are eager to listen and learn from the UK’s number one procurer of temporary agency labour.

The seminar takes place Thursday 20^th January, 9.30am at the Midland Hotel, Manchester.

What you should already know about the AWR:

• The type of worker that will fall within the scope of the regulations.
• How the AWR will affect umbrella workers and limited contractors.
• A temporary agency worker’s rights to equal pay.
• The qualifying period for equal rights and when the clock will be restarted.
• The provisions included for training.
• Who is liable for compliance.
• What anti-avoidance measures the Government are planning.
• How you will calculate comparable pay.
• How you will measure the time period of a temporary agency worker.