Agency workers
While agency workers (often called 'temps') benefit from many employment rights, they will have different working rights from employees. As an agency worker, it's important to know your rights and the rules about the way employment agencies and employment businesses should treat you.
What an agency worker is
An agency worker works through an agency which finds them jobs.
As an agency worker you will either have a contract for services or a contract of employment with the agency who finds you work. This work is often called ‘temporary work’, 'temping' or ‘agency work’.
The firm who hires you pays a fee to the agency, and the agency pays your wages. The agency has to pay you even if the hiring company has not paid the agency.
Agencies cannot charge you for finding you work (although there are some exceptions in the entertainment or modelling industries).
There are several advantages to being an agency worker, you can:
- use it as a stepping stone to the job you want
- use it as a way of entering or re-entering the job market
- use it to work more flexibly to help balance domestic responsibilities
- move jobs easily and with little or no notice
- try out different kinds of work
Flexibility for both worker and hiring company is one of the features of agency work.
As an agency worker you have the flexibility to take up and leave temporary work at short notice, but the hiring company also has the flexibility to finish temporary work without being liable for unfair dismissal or redundancy pay.
You should check your contract with your agency as it may include a notice period you may be obliged to give.
Your rights as an agency worker
Agency workers are usually considered to be ‘workers’ and not ‘employees’. Further information on the employment rights for workers and agency workers is available on the following page:
If there is a dispute about whether you’re an ‘employee’, an Industrial Tribunal will decide on the facts of the case.
Employment agencies and employment businesses
Employment businesses and employment agencies are different things:
- a business that supplies you to carry out temporary work with a ‘hiring company’ is legally known as an 'employment business'
- an ‘employment agency’ is a business that finds work for job-seekers who are then employed and paid by employers
In reality, many businesses deal with both finding temporary work and permanent employment and the term ‘agency’ is used for employment agencies and employment businesses.
Your agency should confirm with you if it is acting to find you a job with an employer or temporary work. If you're not sure if you're an agency worker you should check who pays you. If you're paid by the agency, then this makes you an agency worker.
Permanent recruitment through employment agencies
There are important differences between temporary agency workers, and people who have found a fixed-term or permanent job through an employment agency.
Companies often use an employment agency to find them suitable candidates for a job opening, and then hire someone based on the candidates put forward by the agency. In this situation, your employment contract would be with the company that hires you, rather than the employment agency.
When you are employed directly by a company you will have different employment rights as a permanent or fixed-term member of staff, than you would as an agency worker.
If you have your own company
If you have your own company or work through a limited company and use an agency then you are still protected as an agency worker but you can choose to opt-out of this protection. You must do this before you are introduced to a hiring company by your agency.
The opt-out has to be given by both the limited company contractor and the person actually doing the work (for example, if the limited company contractor engages its own workers).
An agency cannot make their work-finding services or an offer of work conditional on you opting out of your rights.
Where to get help
If you have a problem with an employment agency, you can contact the Employment Agency Inspectorate (EAI) or use the online form to make a complaint.
The Labour Relations Agency (LRA) offers free, confidential and impartial advice on all employment rights issues.
If you are a member of a trade union you can get help, advice and support from them.