Not happy with my agency....

catmanhog

I work for council through an agency, which i am registered as a limited through an umbrella company.
I recently discovered from my 'contact consultant' at the agency, that i am apparently not entilted to holiday pay. Further to this, 3 of my fellow agency workers - 2 of which are with the same agency - revealed to me their hourly rate, which is nearly 50% higher than mine, for doing the same job. I have even trained 2 of them.
On initial contact about the role, i told them the hourly rate i was looking for but they said they could not go that high. I now know that this was far far far from the truth and they have had less experienced workers in the same role, in the same office on the higher rate. Two more people are due to start the role in early January, these jobs have been advertised by another agency at - guess what - the higher rate! I have been told, even after the agency advertising the roles showed great interest in taking me on - that it is legally not allowed, as they have introductory rights. The council have decided against having anymore staff from my current agency, as the terms and conditions of any of us going to perm. roles were completely unrealistic. I spoke to the agency about this and they told me...'Tough....'...no, really....they did!
Anyone at all have any ideas?

Thanks....

dawyldthing

you'll not get back pay, but say that you have heard on the grapevine that people are being paid more. tell them what you have been doing and just say you have been there for x months and now think you deserve a pay rise

catmanhog

Tried that...their response was 'tough'.....!

Mara69

catmanhog wrote: »

Tried that...their response was 'tough'.....!

Then I suggest you start looking for work via another agency. Ultimately, agencies will always work in their best interests, not those of the employee.

Hammyman

catmanhog wrote: »

I work for council through an agency, which i am registered as a limited through an umbrella company.
I recently discovered from my 'contact consultant' at the agency, that i am apparently not entilted to holiday pay. Further to this, 3 of my fellow agency workers - 2 of which are with the same agency - revealed to me their hourly rate, which is nearly 50% higher than mine, for doing the same job. I have even trained 2 of them.

They are correct. You are self employed so no holiday pay entitlement. You need to sort out your own holiday pay from your own Ltd company, not the agency. You don't get to have the tax perks of self employment AND the benefits of employment rights at the same time, you get one or the other.

There is no entitlement to the same rate of pay, even less for someone who is self employed.

And yes, it is tough luck.

Hammyman

Mara69 wrote: »

Then I suggest you start looking for work via another agency. Ultimately, agencies will always work in their best interests, not those of the employee.

The OP is not an employee of the agency. The OP is a Ltd Company providing a service to the agency so the agency is the OPs customer.

System

i am registered as a limited through an umbrella company

How does that work? You are either a limited company or you work through an umbrella company. You can't have a ltd co working through an umbrella

scheming_gypsy

!!!!!! wrote: »

How does that work? You are either a limited company or you work through an umbrella company. You can't have a ltd co working through an umbrella

you can, well kind of. Paystream offer this service (and probably other companies).

http://www.paystream.co.uk/Limited_company_services/default.aspx

So even though you're a limit company your 'umbrella company' do all the administration side of things for you.

Mara69

Hammyman wrote: »

The OP is not an employee of the agency. The OP is a Ltd Company providing a service to the agency so the agency is the OPs customer.

Ah, thanks. Missed that.

Smidster

How long have you been employed in the role as you mention training new staff I assume you have been there for a prolonged period.

at the beginning of October the new Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) came into force.

This means that after 13 weeks agency workers are entitled to the same benefits as full time employees. Pay must be equal (for the same job) and things such as holidays, medical care etc, equalised.

Edit to add - the regs were no retrospective meaning the 13 week period is now about to come to an end. If you have been in post since October you may want to look into it

System

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

you can, well kind of. Paystream offer this service (and probably other companies).

http://www.paystream.co.uk/Limited_company_services/default.aspx

So even though you're a limit company your 'umbrella company' do all the administration side of things for you.

So you use Paystream as your accountants. Pushing it to claim that they are umbrella in these circumstances. Even they don't admit to that.