Agency Worker Rights UK: AWR 2010 Explained

Overview

An agency worker is someone supplied to a hirer (the business you actually turn up to work for) by a temporary work agency. You are not usually a direct employee of the hirer. Instead, your contract sits with the agency, or in some cases with an umbrella company that handles your pay and tax.

Despite that arrangement, you still benefit from a set of statutory rights. The main piece of legislation is the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, which gives you parity with comparable permanent staff on basic pay and conditions once you have completed 12 calendar weeks in the same role.

Separate protections come from the Working Time Regulations 1998 (holiday and rest breaks), the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 (pay floor), the Employment Rights Act 1996 (deductions and itemised payslips), and the Equality Act 2010 (discrimination). Many agency workers also qualify for automatic pension enrolment.

The key point is that your route into the role does not strip you of these protections, even if your contract reads as though it does.

Key steps

1. Check who actually employs you. Read your paperwork carefully and work out whether you are contracted to the agency, to an umbrella company, or treated as a worker rather than an employee. This affects which rights you can rely on, how your tax is deducted, and who you raise a complaint with if something goes wrong on an assignment.
2. Track your 12-week qualifying period. Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, equal treatment on basic pay and working conditions kicks in after 12 calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer. Keep your own record of start dates, hours and any breaks in the assignment, because rights like holiday pay parity and bonus eligibility can depend on this clock.
3. Know your day-one entitlements. From your first shift you should have access to shared facilities such as canteens, car parks, prayer rooms and childcare on the same basis as permanent staff. You also have the right to be told about internal vacancies at the hirer. If you are pregnant, you are entitled to paid time off for antenatal appointments during an assignment.
4. Scrutinise umbrella company deductions. If you are paid through an umbrella, look closely at your payslip and any 'key information document' you were given. Employer National Insurance, the apprenticeship levy and the umbrella's margin should not be taken out of your agreed rate in a way that leaves you below the minimum wage. Unexplained deductions are a red flag worth raising.
5. Raise issues early and in writing. If equal pay, holiday, payslip accuracy or discrimination becomes a concern, put it to the agency (and the hirer where relevant) in writing. Keep copies of timesheets, rotas and messages. Acas can help with early conciliation, and an employment tribunal claim generally needs to be started within three months less one day of the issue arising.