Employers utilizing recruitment firms to discover short-term or long-term employees have specific duties.

Recruitment companies that discover staff for other businesses, however pay the personnel themselves, are referred to as 'em ployment services'.

If you handle employees through an employment company, they are accountable for guaranteeing the employees' rights under working time and minimum wage guidelines.

Recruitment agencies supplying employees for agriculture, food processing, horticultural and shellfish-gathering industries are known as 'gangmasters' - if you use one, you need to ensure they are licensed gangmasters.

Employers' duties

As an employer, you're accountable for:

- company workers' health and wellness
- ensuring they have the very same access to shared centers as other employees
- letting them understand about relevant task vacancies in your company

However, you can stop supplying work to a firm employee, as long as they're not used by you.

Additional rights after 12 weeks

After 12 weeks in the very same job, firm workers are entitled to the same terms as employees doing the same or similar work. This consists of:

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

For more information, see assistance on agency worker guidelines.

Transfer charges

Recruitment firms can charge a transfer cost if you employ a worker straight, or a worker is supplied to you through another recruitment agency after their initial contract. Recruitment firms should inform you in your agreement if they mean to charge you transfer costs.

When an agency employee starts deal with you, a recruitment company can only charge a transfer fee if you take the worker on within either of the following periods, whichever ends later:

- 8 weeks of the end of their last task with you
- 14 weeks of the start of their first project with you

If there has actually been a break of 42 days between the employee's projects with you, the 14 weeks will start from the start date of the most recent project.

The recruitment firm might also charge you a transfer charge if:

- you present a worker to a 3rd celebration who then utilizes them throughout this duration
- you utilize a worker presented to you by a recruitment firm before they have begun their task with you through the firm

Extended hire duration

If you use an employee supplied to you by a recruitment agency, the firm should provide you a prolonged hire duration instead of charging you a transfer cost. This indicates they would continue to provide the employee to you for a predetermined duration without changing the terms of the task. Once the predetermined duration ends, you would employ the worker directly with no transfer cost.

A recruitment agency might charge you a transfer cost if they present an employee to you and you employ them:

- before they begin work through the recruitment firm
- through a various firm, before they start work through the introducing recruitment company

In both cases, the presenting company needs to offer the choice of a hire period rather of charging you a transfer cost. The terms of this hire duration need to be set out in your contract with the recruitment agency.