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Agency Workers Denied Employed Staff's Contractual Hours

on Wednesday, 31 July 2019.

Agency workers that were demanding the same contractual hours as employed staffed have had their request dismissed.

The Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) 2010 do not entitle agency workers to demand the same number of contractual hours as a directly-recruited employee comparator. The Court of Appeal has therefore upheld an employment tribunal's decision regarding this in Kocur v Angard Staffing Solutions Limited and another (2019) EWCA Civ 1185.

The court reached its decision both on the statutory language and the underlying purpose of the AWR 2010 and the Agency Workers Directive. There was nothing to suggest that they were intended to regulate the amount of work that agency workers were entitled to be given. The inclusion of the duration of working time as a relevant term and condition in regulation 6(1)(b) of the AWR 2010 was intended to refer to terms which set a maximum length for any such periods.

The court was also mindful of the purpose of using agency workers, which is to give the hirer flexibility in the size of workforce available to it from time to time. The employment tribunals and EAT, incorporating lay members, recognised this fact and the court held that their full weight should be given to their expertise.


For more information please contact Michael Delaney in our Employment Law team on 01923 919 316, or complete the form below.

 

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