Agency workers

Rights for agency workers​​

Agency workers are entitled to the same rights as other ‘workers’.

Agency workers on ‘pay between assignment’ contracts, have the same rights as ‘employees’.

In addition, agency workers have the right to a written statement of terms and conditions before they start any work.

An agency may not:

• charge the worker a fee simply for finding them work or putting them on their books
• insist a worker buy other products or services such as CV writing, training, or personal protective equipment as a condition of using their work-finding services
• withhold a workers’ pay simply because they have not received payment from the organisation you worked at, or because you cannot produce a signed time sheet. It is the agency’s responsibility to establish the hours that the worker actually worked.

See the TUC’s agency workers guide [PDF] for more information.

Accidents at work

​​Agencies have a duty to find out about any health and safety risks in the workplace known to the organisation that is hiring an agency worker and the steps taken to prevent or control those risks. They should check that the organisation has carried out a thorough health and safety risk assessment and ensure that workers are made aware of the situation before placing them in an organisation.​

Equal treatment

​​From the first day of work for a hirer agency, workers have rights to:

• access to the same facilities as permanent staff
• the same opportunities to apply for internal vacancies as permanent staff. 

Once agency workers have worked in the same role at an organisation for 12 weeks they have the right to:

• be paid at the same rate as permanent staff (unless you are on a ‘pay between assignments’ contract, see below)
• the same holiday rights as permanent staff 
• the same working time entitlements as permanent staff.  ​​