AWR explained
Agency Workers Regulations, or AWR as it is widely known, is a piece of EU legislation that came into effect on the 1st October 2011 to help protect agency workers rights. It has impacted massively on the tens of thousands of UK businesses who rely on the contractors, freelancers and interim staff who make up the UK's 1.4million strong temporary workforce.
What are the regs?
After a qualifying period of 12 weeks, any temporary worker is now entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as any permanent employee doing the same job. These conditions include pay (including fees, bonus and commission); overtime, working hours, breaks and annual leave entitlement.
What happens if we don't comply?
If your organisation is paying a temporary worker via PAYE and they don't get what they're entitled to, then you could find yourself in a tribunal claims court. If the claim is upheld, minimum compensation equivalent to at least two weeks pay will be awarded to the wronged contractor. Plus, if your company is found to be trying to structure temporary contracts to try to get round the legislation, you could end up shelling out up to £5,000 in fines and back dated pay.
What is Originem's response?
In our opinion, AWR is here to stay, and it's not something that in a million years we'd ever consider skirting around. We're more than happy to fully comply with the regulations – in fact, we have two robust contract solutions ready and waiting to be applied depending on the worker's rate of pay and assignment length:
Swedish Derogation
The Swedish Derogation model is where temporary workers are permanently employed on your behalf by Originem, placing them outside of AWR in respect of pay. We assume all employment risk and are responsible for providing pay between contracts, holidays and pensions. In addition to mitigating risk for your company, the temporary workers we employ receive legitimate extra benefits that result in an uplift in take home pay.
Parity of Pay
Again, using this model, temporary workers are employed by Originem on your behalf. Then after the 12-week qualifying period, we put the contractor on the same rate of pay as their permanent equivalents. This model works best when the contract is going to be for less than 12 weeks (in which case AWR doesn’t apply) or if Originem, as employer, can guarantee that the temporary workers are already paid more and therefore no rate adjustments will be needed.
