The head of regulation and employment at Adecco Group has warned that many employers show “an alarming lack of awareness about the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR)”.

Andy Smith says: “Publication of guidance by the government has been delayed by its deliberations over a possible review and is not expected until sometime next year. But many organisations need to understand the potential impact of the regulations now because they are developing their HR and budget plans for 2011.”

Mike Emmott, CIPD public policy adviser, says: “It is important that employers should make their own assessment of how the regulations will affect them, based on an understanding of what they say.

“Agency working makes a significant contribution to the UK’s flexible labour market and it would be damaging if employers were to make decisions about their recruitment strategies based on misunderstandings around the scale of the impact the regulations are likely to have on their business, or stories about ‘gold-plating’.”

Smith’s and Emmott’s comments come following the publishing of a new guide by the CIPD, in partnership with Adecco, which aims to help employers prepare for the impact of the AWR.

The regulations, which come into effect on 1 October 2011, implement an EU directive requiring the basic employment terms and conditions of agency workers after a qualifying period of 12 weeks to be no less favourable than those that would apply if they had been recruited directly.