Employers utilizing recruitment companies to discover short-lived or long-term employees have particular duties.

Recruitment firms that discover staff for other services, however pay the staff themselves, are known as 'em ployment organizations'.

If you take on workers through an employment service, they're for making sure the workers' rights under working time and base pay rules.

Recruitment firms supplying workers for agriculture, food processing, horticultural and shellfish-gathering markets are called 'gangmasters' - if you use one, you need to make certain they are certified gangmasters.

Employers' obligations

As a company, you're accountable for:

- company workers' health and security
- guaranteeing they have the exact same access to shared facilities as other employees
- letting them understand about relevant task vacancies in your service

However, you can stop offering work to a company worker, as long as they're not employed by you.

Additional rights after 12 weeks

After 12 weeks in the exact same job, company employees are entitled to the same terms and conditions as employees doing the same or comparable work. This includes:

- pay
- working time, pause and breaks
- night work
- annual leave
- time off for antenatal visits for pregnant workers

For more information, see assistance on firm worker policies.

Transfer costs

Recruitment firms can charge a transfer fee if you employ a worker straight, or a worker is provided to you through another recruitment company after their initial contract. Recruitment companies must inform you in your contract if they mean to charge you transfer fees.

When an agency worker starts work with you, a recruitment company can just charge a transfer cost if you take the worker on within either of the following periods, whichever ends later:

- 8 weeks of completion of their last assignment with you
- 14 weeks of the start of their very first task with you

If there has actually been a break of 42 days in between the worker's tasks with you, the 14 weeks will begin from the start date of the most recent task.

The recruitment company might likewise charge you a transfer fee if:

- you introduce a worker to a third celebration who then employs them throughout this duration
- you employ a worker presented to you by a recruitment company before they have actually started their project with you through the agency

Extended hire duration

If you utilize a worker provided to you by a recruitment agency, the firm must use you an extended hire period instead of charging you a transfer fee. This means they would continue to supply the worker to you for a predetermined duration without altering the regards to the assignment. Once the agreed duration ends, you would utilize the employee straight with no transfer fee.

A recruitment agency might charge you a transfer charge if they present a worker to you and you use them:

- before they begin work through the recruitment company
- through a different agency, before they start resolve the introducing recruitment agency

In both cases, the presenting firm must use the choice of a hire duration rather of charging you a transfer charge. The terms of this hire duration should be set out in your contract with the recruitment company.