Changes to the Conduct Regulations reduce bureaucracy for temp assignments

April 6th saw new rules on very short temporary assignments come into force.

Anne Fairweather, Head of Public Policy at the REC commented: ìThis is a positive change for the recruitment industry. The REC has long argued that requirements to provide written notification on very short term assignments made no sense. Workers and clients often received the information after the assignment had taken place. The Government has now seen sense and the new rules mean that assignments of less than 5 days will be less bureaucratic.î

Other changes to the Conduct Regulations will strengthen the rights of agency workers to withdraw from transport, accommodation or other services provided by agencies. The measures are designed to protect vulnerable workers.

Anne Fairweather, continues: ìREC is very supportive of these measures as all agency workers should be fairly treated at work. It is only a few rogue agencies who use the provision of services to exploit workers. The tightening up of this legislation is a step in the right direction and we now need to see these rules enforced so that the vast majority of recruitment agencies are not undercut by those that flout the rules.î

A brief outline of the new conduct regulations is given below:

Restriction of the use of additional services

Agency workers can withdraw from service provision, e.g. accommodation, at any time without incurring any detriment or penalty providing 10 working days notice is given. For all other services, e.g CV writing, training or transport only 5 working days notice is required



Terms of offering assignments

The regulations reiterate that an employment business must provide detailed information to both the candidate and the client when proposing a candidate to a client or offering work to a candidate. However where the assignment is less than 5 days only the name and proof of identification is required. Similarly the recruitment business need only provide the name of the client and the duration or likely duration of the assignment if it is under 5 days.

Sharing of Information

It also makes it clear that if the recruitment company receives information that suggests that a work-seeker may be unsuitable for the position they must inform the client.

Full guidance from the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform is available at: