AGENCY WORKERS

AgencyOwner

I have had enquiries from temps who have quoted various bits of info from this site about being furloughed which doesn't quite add up to what employer regulators advise. Can I check that the people running this site are advising temporary workers on their knowledge of what a "contract of services" as opposed to 0 hours and permanent employment contracts.
The advise on this site is leading people whose temp booking had finished naturally into believing that recruitment agencies should be furloughing them, even though the agency had no set work planned for them. In order for an agency to re employ someone they would need to prove that the temp was actually needed / had work. I find myself now battling (after advice from recruitment legal specialists) with people with whom we have them on the payroll system, but didn't have work planned and having to explain that we have been advised that we should be careful as if investigated by HMRC it would show that we were paying people for whom we didn't have guaranteed work for in the first place. Agency workers are employed for only the time they are contracted and their p45 still sat with the agency for a timeframe in which more suitable work can be searched or when the worker wants it for another agency. 
Please let me know where your advise is coming from on this so that I can speak with our regulator and get a clearer picture as to whether agencies should be paying people on a "contract for services" contract which doesn't guarantee work and means the temp can refuse work offered, whose bookings had naturally ended, who worked ad hoc and who had no bookings lined up.
I believed furlough to be for employees who would have been guaranteed to be working had Covid 19 not have emerged.

sharpe106

That was the original plan but god know what the plan is now. Do not think the government knows, they just keep changing it to. Whatever people say the criteria is 
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-for-wage-costs-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme
When it comes to approving claims it will not be the chancellor or any of his team doing it. It will be a civil servant with the policy in front of them. They will go of the policy not what ministers or the press say. 
 

AgencyOwner

Thank you The problem I have is that our recruitment agency regulator and our contracts do not recognise that someone is working when their booking finishes and yet I get people saying - martin lewis website says we can claim...but im not sure if the guys running this site have looked into more detail of what an agency workers contract is. Many agencies have hundreds of people on the system at any given time but not all them would have work and would have signed on to work benefits to bridge the gap but now they are asking to be furloughed...understandably as its more money but they wouldn't have got that money before when they were not working, they would have had to keep looking and whilst I appreciate this is a very tough time to find work I equally don't want to be held to account by the HMRC for the next five years whilst they deem what was or was not a fair claim.
I and the regulator see that if a temp had finished a booking naturally then they are not able to be furlough but this site is indicating differently and if I knew where they were getting that information form I too could pursue more facts.

sharpe106

As with everything all they have said is that they can claim, just not mentioned how it would work in practice. The government has left the advice very conflicting and with grey areas on purpose. They don't want everybody to claim but they don't want blaming for it, so they get the good PR from it and the employers/agencies are left to look like the bad guys not helping the employees out, 

AgencyOwner

yes, that's it exactly.

loadsacash

Have you seen this?
https://www.rec.uk.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/527537/Coronavirus-Job-Retention-Scheme-for-Furloughed-Workers-V2.pdf

Tabatha_Kitten

So if I'm on an ongoing temporary assignment which the client has ended due to coronavirus, my agency should be furloughing me ?

gary83

The question isn’t should my agency be furloughing me? the question is could my agency furlough me?

how were you paid?
when did you start the assignment?

Tabatha_Kitten

Assignment started Oct 2018. Paid PAYE by the agency.

sugarsnapgirl

I am also in the same position. My agency informed me that the company I was working for could not renew my contract (it ended on the 1st March) due to Covid 19. My question is can I be furloughed as my contract would have been extended but the project I was working on had to be put on hold due to Covid 19?

sharpe106

sugarsnapgirl said:

I am also in the same position. My agency informed me that the company I was working for could not renew my contract (it ended on the 1st March) due to Covid 19. My question is can I be furloughed as my contract would have been extended but the project I was working on had to be put on hold due to Covid 19?

Yes you can be, but the problem is that agencies can’t afford to. They don’t have that kind of cash flow to pay people wages for a few week.