Agency Workers Rights Dont Matter!!!

colin22

I have been working for any agency for almost a year now I cannot find permenant employment all jobs are though agencies. I do the same work as the permenant staff for £160 less per week. All the agency workers at the company have been excited about the new regulations that would mean increased and fair pay.

The agency that employ us came in for a meeting 3 days before Christmas and said that we would not be getting the pay increase. Instead we were offered a 2 year contract with the agency on the same money.

Nobody wanted to sign the contract, we did not get chance to read or think about it, we were told it gets signed today or Friday will be your last day. Everyone was forced to sign because we couldnt afford to loose our jobs 3 days before Christmas. We were not allowed to date the contract, those who wanted to date the day they signed were told if they did then the contract would not count and they would loose their job.

I am not a member of a union and have no one to speak to about what happened, I have been reading about the Swedish Derogation Model but this was not mentioned by the agency nor within the contract I signed.

I cant believe they can get away with this, I have been an agency work for a year I am constantly asking to be taken on as full time staff. I am a good worker and I am working for a pitance, anyone had similar experiences or advice?

salduck

Hi colin,
You need to raise this as a grievance. If the agency has made you sign a contract and not date it this is illegal. Also I reckon this could be classed as avoidance which holds very serious fines for the agency ad the employer- Send me a PM if you like and i can advise you.
I would also advice you to call REC as they are the " regulatory" body however AWR is a government scheme so they could well be breaking the law but as noone has taken any agency or employer to court yet its an untried and untested Regulation

HTH
Sal

Notmyrealname

You have been signed up to the Swedish Derogation by the sounds of it although to be fully compliant it must be in place before the start of your first assignment with the agency since the introduction of the AWR.

The good thing about the derogation is that you get paid when there is no work. The amount they have to pay in between assignments is no less than 50% of your average pay over the previous 12 weeks and for no less than 4 calendar weeks. So if your contract finished tomorrow they'd have to continue to pay you 50% of what the average of your wages were per week since October for the next four weeks. Only if there was no work after that point could they then terminate your employment with the agency. As soon as you do a days work, the four week "roll on" resets.

Pupnik

How awful, it definitely seems very shady that they did not let you read or date the contract. I hope you and the other agency workers can group together and change this.