- The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2019 have been published
- The legislation will take effect from 6 April 2020
- It inserts Regulation 13A into the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 which involves the creation of a Key Information Document (KID)
- A KID must be provided by an agency to a work-seeker and, if the work-seeker is a company such as a contracting intermediary, the person who is being supplied to carry out the work. There is different information which much be supplied in each scenario
- The KID must be separate from any other documents provided to the work-seeker and must be given before the employment business reaches an agreement on terms with that person, including the finalised version of that document if variations or revisions have been provided
- The legislation sets out all of the information that must be included and in what format i.e. title and a statement directly underneath, limited to 2 sides of A4 paper, using characters of a readable size
- Its contents must include (but not be limited to);
- How the work-seeker will be engaged contractually
- Rate of remuneration payable and intervals it will be paid
- Costs and deductions required by law, as well as non-statutory deductions
- Any fees which may be charged for services/goods
- Entitlement to annual leave
- A representative example statement which sets out as amounts including gross remuneration, costs and deductions, fees charged and the net remuneration payable to the work-seeker
- It is not possible to “opt out” of this new legislation
Aspire comment
The creation and provision of a KID brings extra administration and paperwork for agencies who are, very often, urgently attempting to place a work-seeker on assignment. However, Regulation 13A doesn’t take effect until 6 April 2020 and therefore, there is time to get new processes and templates in place ahead of its introduction. There will be efficiencies to be gained by avoiding duplication of information in what is already a very paper-heavy environment.
The legislation is prescriptive and introduces strict timeframes for the production of information to work-seekers, therefore it is important to ensure compliance under Regulation 13A. Designed to protect the interest of the work-seeker, the spirit of the legislation is clear but, there are some aspects which we consider potentially undermine the intent. We have raised these with the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (EASI) and await further clarification. Unfortunately, it seems that detailed guidance is still some time away.
See the legislation here. We will provide updates as more is clarified.