Union bosses at Unite claim to have evidence that some companies in the print industry are colluding with employment agencies to avoid new regulations and are threatening legal action.
The new UK Agency Worker Regulations passed in April are due to go live in November. They effectively make it more expensive for companies to use freelance workers for longer than 12 weeks, at which point their rights and pay align with those of full-time staff.
The rules are likely to have a major impact on both the creative industries and the print sector.
But Unite says it has evidence, including written documentation, that arrangements are being made to take advantage of a clause in the law designed to avoid situations where staff directly employed and controlled by one company, but working temporarily at another, are affected by the regulations.
Unite national officer Steve Sibbald said: “All they have to do is to call themselves a contract service provider and introduce a supervisory level for the employer. These companies are trying to exploit that clause so they are not caught up in the provision. If we find that anyone suddenly changes arrangements and introduces a supervisory level for agency staff, we’ll be taking them to court.”
Unite said that following legal advice, it believed such “sham arrangements” were attempts to avoid law which is essentially equality legislation.
Sibbald warned that while it may be the agencies with the most to gain from sidestepping the regulations, any fines and legal costs arising from cases brought by Unite would be borne by the employer. “What we’re saying is that if you go down this road it’s going to be very expensive for you,” he said.
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