E-recruitment sites must wait to find out whether they will be affected by changes to the Employment Agencies Act (EAA), which came into force in April this year.

Confusion arose over requirements for agencies to verify the accuracy of CVs, which could mean a huge increase in workload for jobsites if they are considered to be employment agencies and therefore affected by the regulations.

E-recruitment site owners have argued that, like a newspaper recruitment section, they offer a public forum that allows employers to act with candidates. However, many sites also offer a job-matching service that contacts candidates when a suitable position arises – as an agency would - and it is this interactivity that has placed them in legal limbo.

Online recruiters have already aired their concerns to Department of Trade and Industry. Speaking at last week’s meeting of the Recruitment Society, Vic Patterson, head of employment agency standards at the DTI, said the government will consult with agencies, job-boards and users of job boards over the coming weeks.

“Many job-boards believe they are exempt from the regulations or that it does not apply to them,” said Patterson. “We will respond in the summer after consulting the private recruitment industry as a whole, whether online or not.”