Making Work Pay – make your voice heard

The UK government has initiated a consultation titled "Making Work Pay: the application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers", focusing on extending protections to agency workers under the Employment Rights Bill.

The Employment Rights Bill introduces measures to address "one-sided flexibility" in zero-hours contracts, including:

• Right to Guaranteed Hours: Workers can request a contract reflecting the average hours worked over a 12-week reference period.

• Reasonable Notice of Shifts: Employers must provide adequate notice for shifts, with compensation for cancellations or curtailments made on short notice.

The consultation seeks input on how these measures should apply to agency workers, considering the complexities of their employment relationships, which often involve multiple parties such as employment agencies, umbrella companies, and end hirers.

Key considerations include:

• Responsibility for Offering Guaranteed Hours: Determining whether the obligation to offer guaranteed hours should rest with the employment agency or the end hirer.

• Interaction with Existing Legislation: Assessing how these new rights align with current laws governing employment agencies and agency workers.

The government invites stakeholders to provide feedback to inform the development of legislation that effectively extends these protections to agency workers.

You can complete the consultation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-work-pay-the-application-of-zero-hours-contracts-measures-to-agency-workers

RHA Considerations

RHA members are reliant on the ability to utilise agency workers, especially drivers, to cover sickness, short term contracts, holidays and other unexpected additional worker demands.

Within the consultation, it is for decision as to where the responsibility for guaranteeing the hours lies. Whether this should be the agency who hold the contract with the worker, or the end hirer who determines the work.

Given that drivers can work for multiple hirers over a 12 week period, it would be difficult to attribute which hirer should guarantee their hours.

Using a 12 week period could be hugely problematic during seasonal peaks, given that the Christmas peak starts in early autumn, an agency worker could spend a significant amount of time working for a single end hirer. In the new year, once demand has decreased, this proposal would mean the end hirer could need to guarantee hours based on the previous 12 weeks.

This completely defeats the object of agency work.

From an agency perspective, if the hirer is responsible for guaranteeing the drivers wagers, then they affectively become contracted to the end hirer. Therefore, they should be subject to the “temp to perm” fee. Again, this could have significant implications for the end hirer, adding costs onto temporary contracts.

RHA are keen for members to respond to this consultation, along with our official response. If you have any questions or would like advice about responding, then please contact Sally Gilson, Policy Lead for Skills [email protected]