Agency Workers Regulations and the retail sector

Retail usage of temporary labour has increased by 20.05% in July; an indication that businesses in this sector are trying to cut costs through a flexible workforce with no long-term commitment.

The Business Distress Index indicates 48% of retailers have experienced a fall of sales, with 40% concerned about their debt levels.

The industry is clearly struggling and shows no sign of recovering, as consumers reduce their spending.

Many employees are leaving the sector; Linda Farish, Director of Recovery Insolvency at accountants RMT stated: “In the retail sector personnel tend to be one of the main costs to a business, so the fact that retailers are not making redundancies may suggest that retailers have already reduced their head count as much as they can.
  
“The fact that almost one in five retailers have seen key personnel depart suggests that employees are jumping rather than being pushed.”

Temporary agency workers are seen as a key solution to the number of permanent staff leaving the retail industry. But this means that the sector is likely to be heavily affected by the implementation of the Agency Workers Regulations. 

de Poel work with a number of retail clients and have analysed data from the last year to establish exactly how the regulations will impact the industry.

The average number of weeks a temporary agency worker will work is more than twice the qualifying period of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR). In some cases workers were on the same assignment for over three years. On average the same temporary agency worker will be supplied by more than one agency and work at various different locations.

Businesses need to find a way to keep a record of the length of time a temporary agency worker has been working for them, but they also need to ensure the same worker isn’t working at different sites or being provided by various agencies, as this will all contribute to the AWR 12 week qualifying period.

If you want any help or advice about the Agency Workers Regulations contact us or take a look at our downloads page.