AWR: Managing the 12-week qualifying period

The 12-week qualifying period is key to the Agency Workers Regulations and with just a few weeks left until their implementation it’s crucial that businesses have the right tools in place.

There are many factors that affect the qualifying period that can make it very difficult to track. It does not necessarily refer to 12 weeks of work; therefore a temporary agency worker could work one day per week over a 12-week period and still qualify under the Agency Workers Regulations.

Breaks in the period are also an issue for companies to manage; any period of up to six weeks without work will not reset the term. Breaks when the clock stops ticking, include sickness, jury service and industrial action – so for example a temporary agency worker could work for six weeks, have two weeks off work for jury service, then return to work for a further six weeks and qualify for equal treatment. Breaks when the clock keeps ticking include childbirth, adoption and paternity leave.

There are obvious issues when it comes to monitoring the length of time a temporary worker has been working for a company, and when the qualifying period is complete. Our unique web-based system, e-tips® means agency workers will accrue qualifying time when they work in the same role for the same client. A traffic light system will show you exactly where in the period they are - they do not even have to be supplied by the same agency. e-tips® can track time accrued by agency workers working through more than one agency and at different client locations, thus uniquely protect clients from unknown breaches of the AWR.