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Employment specialists join forces for agency workers seminars
10/06/2010

The next wave of Brabners Chaffe Street seminars on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are being announced following the conclusion of a series of presentations held during the last few weeks in conjunction with The Employment Agents Movement (TEAM) and the ALP (The Association of Labour Providers).

Liz Longman, director at TEAM, said: "The series of seminars that TEAM has run with Brabners Chaffe Street have been very well received by our members and guests. Whilst the industry awaits guidance from BIS, people felt they had the right information to start discussions with their clients. TEAM will continue to keep its members fully informed as more information becomes available and plan to run a further series of seminars towards the end of the year."

Following the success of its recent seminars, Brabners Chaffe Street will also be joining forces with the ALP to host a series of full day workshops for labour providers and end users later this year.

The workshops are designed to help agencies and end users prepare for the Regulations that will come into force on 1 October 2011, which will provide agency workers, more commonly known as `temps`, with a right to equal treatment after 12 weeks on assignment.

Under the Regulations, agency workers will be entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as those who are (or would have been) hired directly by the end user. These relate to pay, working time, rest breaks and annual leave. It does not include contractual payments relating to sick leave, pension, redundancy or maternity, adoption or paternity leave.

Paul Chamberlain, partner at Brabners Chaffe Street, is a nationally-recognised expert in the law relating to employment businesses and agencies. He commented: "The seminars have addressed the basic principles behind the Regulations - the workshops will provide an ideal opportunity to explore the practical issues arising from the new Regulations, which will have huge implications - both financially and operationally - for both labour providers and end-users of agency labour.

"The government estimates that the Regulations will lead to £1.8 billion of increased costs per year so it is imperative that businesses act now to identify how to respond, whilst ensuring they don`t overlook the anti-avoidance provisions contained within the complex definitions."

David Camp, managing director of the ALP, added: "We are delighted to be continuing our work with Brabners Chaffe Street to inform labour providers and their clients about the practical aspects of implementing the Agency Workers Regulations. Demand for the workshops has already been high, with many employment businesses requesting to run in-house sessions for their customers. Brabners Chaffe Street has demonstrated its expertise in this area through its involvement in the development of the regulations so far."

Brabners Chaffe Street is the appointed employment law advisers to TEAM and the ALP.

The ALP workshops will be held in Nottingham, Cheshunt, Manchester and London in July, September and November. For further information on these or to book your place, please call 01276 509306 or email info@labourproviders.org.uk.


For further information contact Paul Chamberlain at Brabners Chaffe Street on 0161 836 8800

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