Hiring Temporary Workers Through an Agency

Introduction

Temporary workers (temps) are people who are hired on a short-term basis, usually to fulfil specific duties, such as to cover an employee's maternity/paternity or sick leave, or to meet extra demand during busy periods. They are often hired in sectors that are subject to seasonal fluctuations such as retail, tourism and hospitality. Temps are also hired to work in sectors that suffer from skills shortages such as secretarial and administrative, health and social care, and engineering.

Employers generally source and hire temps through temping agencies that employ and pay the temps and charge the hirer a fee.

This guide provides an introduction to hiring a temp through an agency and summarises the rights of temporary workers. It also identifies the legislation that hirers and temping agencies must comply with.

What is a temping agency?

Temporary workers are typically sourced via a temping agency, which recruits, selects and employs them, and provides them to hirers in return for a fee.

As the employer, the agency takes responsibility for tasks such as carrying out right-to-work checks (to ensure that the temp is legally entitled to work in the UK) and managing the temp's National Insurance contributions and tax payments via PAYE.

Rights of temporary workers

Under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (and equivalent regulations in Northern Ireland), which place duties on both temping agencies and hirers, temps have the following rights:

• From day one of a temp's assignment, the hirer must ensure that they have access to the same facilities (such as workplace rest rooms, staff canteens and childcare facilities) as permanent employees. They must also be given the same access to information regarding job vacancies.

• After 12 weeks in the same post, it is the joint responsibility of the temping agency and the hirer to ensure that agency workers have the same pay and basic working conditions (such as breaks and annual leave) as workers employed directly by the hirer.

In addition, temps have various entitlements, such as:

• The right to be paid the National Minimum Wage (or the National Living Wage if they are aged 21 or over).

• The right to the statutory minimum level of paid holidays and rest breaks.

• Health and safety protection at work.

Agency fees

Agencies generally charge hirers a fee that includes the worker's hourly rate plus a markup, ranging from around 10% to 25% (for low-skilled workers) to as much as 40% or 50% in sectors where there is a shortage of skilled workers.

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