Fri, 8 Jun 2012

The main impact of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) may be that they are causing frustration for agencies, notes The Employment Agents Movement’s (TEAM’s) AWR Survey.

Almost half of respondents (48%) said that the number of workers in assignment in the periods before and after AWR would impact on workers’ rights was more or less the same. However, 37% said that it had decreased, while 18% said it had increased.

TEAM chair Simon Garbett, says: “There is no doubt that agencies have had to invest heavily both in terms of time and money in ensuring that they have the systems necessary to ensure full compliance.

“A lack of clarity was also highlighted with respondents frustrated by the fact that the regulations are still open to some interpretation.  Many expressed disillusionment at being repeatedly told by their advisors that ‘we will need to wait for case law.’

Garbett concludes that “The problem with this approach is that some believe that they may well end up as the case.”

There was also a slight downward trend for agencies’ margins, with 36% of agencies seeing them fall, compared to 8% seeing a rise.

Overall, 42% of agencies believed their workers had benefited from the AWR, the same as the proportion who had no opinion either way. Only 8% see the regulations as having had a negative impact on workers.