Lawspeed, the recruitment law specialist firm, claims there could be a conflict of interest between HR and finance departments when the Agency Workers Regulations are enforced in October this year.
Lawspeed’s director, Ravi Murphy, said that unlike other rules relating to recruitment agencies, the new regulations contain issues that could lead to conflict.
He cited an example of HR staff finding it hard to fight the unions over the payments made to agency staff whilst finance directors will want to keep costs to a minimum wherever possible. The AWR grants temporary workers the right to the same rate of pay as their permanent counterparts once they’ve been in the same contract for 12 weeks.
The REC has recently raised concerns with the BIS over the draft AWR guidance. The Confederation says further clarification is needed on certain aspects of the AWR including the Pay between Assignments exemption. It would also like to see clearer criteria laid down for the exemption of genuine self-employed limited company contractors.
The REC met with BIS officials last month to highlight concerns and suggest ways in which the final version of the AWR guidelines can be made clearer for recruiters.
Gillian Econopouly from the REC said the organisation has been working with the BIS by holding one-on-one meetings and attending guidance workshop sessions over recent months. More recently, the two bodies met to discuss the guidelines in detail and expect some of the issues raised to be addressed in the final version of the document.
Although the guidance document can never wave a magic wand over dealing with AWR, the REC will continue to urge the coalition to make it as business-friendly as possible.
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