Engage and manage agency workers

Guide summary

Count 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, across one or more assignments
Count any week the worker works part of as a full week towards the 12 weeks
Restart the count if the worker moves to a different hirer or has a break the rules do not cover
Do not arrange assignments to stop workers reaching 12 weeks; a tribunal can award up to £5,000 extra
Tell the agency accurately what directly recruited staff doing similar work get, and tell it when that changes
Reply within 28 days if a worker asks for a written statement of your workers' conditions
Reply within 28 days with reasons if a worker says they were denied facilities or vacancy information
Workers can claim to a tribunal against you, the agency or both; the minimum compensation is two weeks' pay

When an employment agency supplies someone to work temporarily for you, under your supervision and direction, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give them rights against you as the hirer as well as against the agency. Some apply from the first day, and the rest after 12 weeks in the same role.

Who counts as an agency worker

What you must provide from the first day

Agency worker rights from the first day

Rights agency workers have from the first day of an assignment, with no qualifying period.

Collective facilities: Same access as a comparable worker to canteen, childcare and transport
Vacancy information: Told about relevant permanent vacancies with the hirer
Detriment protection: No detriment or unfair dismissal for asserting AWR rights
Antenatal time off: Not a first-day right; applies after the 12-week qualifying period

An agency worker has these rights during an assignment from the first day, with no qualifying period. The hirer is liable for any breach of the facilities and vacancy rights.

The hirer may treat an agency worker less favourably over collective facilities and amenities only where that is justified on objective grounds. Collective facilities and amenities include a canteen or similar facilities, childcare facilities and transport services.

The hirer can meet the vacancy duty with a general announcement in a suitable place in its establishment, so it does not need to tell each agency worker individually.

Paid time off for antenatal appointments applies only once the agency worker has completed the 12-week qualifying period.

What you must provide after 12 weeks

Agency worker equal treatment entitlements

What agency workers are entitled to once they complete the 12-week qualifying period.

Entitlement: Same basic conditions as if recruited directly by the hirer to do the same job
Terms covered: Pay, working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks, annual leave
Starts after: 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer
Comparison: Terms in the hirer's employee contracts, or a comparable employee on those terms

After the qualifying period, an agency worker is entitled to the basic working and employment conditions they would have had if the hirer had recruited them directly, other than through an agency, to do the same job. The test is a hypothetical direct recruit, not a named colleague. The conditions are those ordinarily included in the contracts of the hirer's employees (or workers, if the agency worker would have been recruited as a worker), including variations made after the qualifying period began.

Only six terms count: pay, the duration of working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave.

The duty is treated as met if the agency worker works on the same relevant terms as a comparable employee. That is an employee who works for and under the supervision of the hirer, does the same or broadly similar work (having regard to qualifications and skills) and works or is based at the same establishment or, if there is no such employee there, at another establishment.

The entitlement does not extend to occupational sick pay, pension payments, redundancy pay, share schemes or loyalty and long-service bonuses.

What counts as pay under AWR

What is and is not included in pay for agency worker equal treatment under regulation 6 of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010.

Pay means any sums payable to a worker of the hirer in connection with their employment, including any fee, bonus, commission, holiday pay or other emolument referable to the employment, whether payable under contract or otherwise. It includes:

basic pay and hourly rate
overtime payments
shift allowances and unsocial hours payments
holiday pay
commission
bonuses directly attributable to the amount or quality of the work done
vouchers or stamps of fixed monetary value that can be exchanged for money, goods or services

Pay does not include any payment:

of occupational sick pay
by way of a pension, allowance or gratuity on retirement, or compensation for loss of office
in respect of maternity, paternity, parental bereavement or adoption leave (all such payments, not only amounts above the statutory rate)
referable to redundancy
under a financial participation scheme, such as a share or profit-share scheme
of a bonus or incentive given for a reason other than the amount or quality of work done, such as to encourage loyalty or reward long service
for time off under Part 6 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 or for trade union duties
by way of a guarantee payment under section 28 of the Employment Rights Act 1996
by way of an advance under a loan agreement or an advance of pay
for expenses incurred in carrying out the employment
made to the worker otherwise than in their capacity as a worker

Benefits in kind have no monetary value for this purpose, apart from the fixed-value vouchers listed above.

Rights at each stage

Entitlement	From day one	After 12 weeks in the same role
Access to facilities such as the canteen, childcare and transport	Yes	Yes
Being told about permanent vacancies	Yes	Yes
Protection from dismissal or detriment for asserting these rights	Yes	Yes
Basic pay, overtime, shift allowances, commission and holiday pay, at the level direct recruits receive	No	Yes
Working time, night work, rest periods and rest breaks on the same terms as direct recruits	No	Yes
Annual leave on the same terms as direct recruits	No	Yes
Paid time off for ante-natal appointments	No	Yes
Occupational sick pay, pensions, pay for maternity, paternity, adoption or parental bereavement leave, redundancy pay, share schemes and loyalty bonuses	No	No

Count the 12 weeks

Agency worker 12-week qualifying period

How the 12-week qualifying period before equal treatment is counted, what keeps it running and what restarts it.

Qualifying period: 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer
Clock starts: First day at work on the assignment
Counting: Any week in which the worker works for any part of it counts
Assignments: Weeks can be across one or more assignments

The worker must work in the same role with the same hirer for 12 continuous calendar weeks, during one or more assignments. Any week in which the worker works for the whole or part of it counts as a calendar week.

Continuity is kept, and the weeks before and after the break are added together, where the break is:

six calendar weeks or fewer, for any reason
wholly due to sickness or injury, up to 28 calendar weeks (the agency can ask for written medical evidence)
related to pregnancy, childbirth or maternity, from the start of the pregnancy until 26 weeks after childbirth or, if earlier, the worker's return to work
wholly to take statutory or contractual leave, such as maternity, adoption or paternity leave or annual leave
wholly due to jury service or similar summons, up to 28 calendar weeks
wholly due to a pre-determined temporary shutdown at the hirer, in line with its established custom and practice
wholly due to a strike, lock-out or other industrial action at the hirer's establishment

Time off for pregnancy, childbirth and maternity, and for maternity, adoption and paternity leave, counts towards the 12 weeks: the worker is treated as working in the role for the intended or likely length of the assignment, whichever is longer.

The count starts again from zero if the worker:

moves to a different hirer
has a break that none of the cases above covers, for example more than six weeks away for another reason
starts a substantively different role with the same hirer, after the agency has told them in writing what type of work the new role involves

Once the worker has completed the qualifying period, the equal treatment rights continue unless one of those restart events happens.

Agency workers - qualifying period (opens in a new tab)

Do not structure assignments to avoid the rights

You and the agency must not arrange assignments so that a worker never reaches 12 weeks.

AWR anti-avoidance provisions

Rules treating an agency worker as having completed the qualifying period where assignments are structured to prevent equal treatment.

Trigger (any one): Two or more completed assignments with the same hirer
Trigger (any one): One assignment with the hirer and an earlier one with a connected hirer
Trigger (any one): More than two roles in one assignment, with at least two role changes
Test: Most likely explanation for the structure is to prevent equal treatment rights
Effect: Treated as having completed the qualifying period from when it would have been completed
Additional award: Up to £5,000

Regulation 9 applies where an agency worker has completed two or more assignments with a hirer, or has completed at least one assignment with the hirer and one or more earlier assignments with hirers connected to it, or has worked in more than two roles during an assignment with the hirer and, on at least two occasions, in a role that was not the same role as the previous one. Hirers are connected if one controls the other, directly or indirectly, or a third person controls both.

The regulation then applies if the most likely explanation for the structure of the assignments is that the hirer, the agency or both intended to prevent the worker being entitled, or continuing to be entitled, to equal treatment, and the worker would otherwise have been entitled.

The factors to be taken into account include the length of the assignments, the number of assignments, the number of times the worker moved to a new role that was not the same role, the number of times they returned to the same role, and the length of any breaks between assignments.

Where regulation 9 applies, the worker is treated as having completed the qualifying period from the time they would have done so, or as continuing to be entitled. A tribunal that finds it applies may also make an additional award of up to £5,000. If it makes that award it cannot also order a penalty under section 12A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996.

Share responsibility with the agency

You and the agency are each liable for a breach of the equal treatment right to the extent you are responsible for it. The agency is not liable if it asked you for the information it needed about your basic working and employment conditions, acted reasonably on what you told it and applied the result to the worker, and you are then liable instead. So tell the agency accurately what your directly recruited staff doing the same or broadly similar work receive, and tell it when that changes.

You alone are liable for a breach of the facilities and vacancies rights.

A worker who thinks the right to equal treatment has been breached can ask the agency for a written statement. If the agency has not provided one within 30 days, the worker can ask you, and you must provide a written statement of your workers' conditions within 28 days. A worker who thinks the facilities or vacancies right has been breached can ask you directly, and you have 28 days to reply with the reasons for the treatment. If you deliberately fail to provide a statement, or give an evasive one, a tribunal can draw an inference that you breached the right.

If a worker brings a claim

An agency worker can make a complaint to an employment tribunal against you, the agency or both.

Agency worker tribunal claims and compensation

How agency workers enforce their Agency Workers Regulations 2010 rights in an employment tribunal, the time limit and the remedies.

Time limit (from 1 October 2026): 6 months from the infringement
Time limit (earlier infringements): 3 months from the infringement
Before claiming: Acas early conciliation
Minimum compensation: Two weeks' pay, unless not just and equitable
Maximum compensation: No cap set in the regulations
Anti-avoidance additional award: Up to £5,000

An agency worker can complain to an employment tribunal that an agency or hirer has infringed their equal treatment, facilities or vacancy rights, or has subjected them to a detriment. The complaint must normally be presented within six months of the infringement, or, for a vacancy claim, of the date on which others were informed of the vacancy, where that date is on or after 1 October 2026. For earlier dates the limit is three months. The Employment Rights Act 2025 made this change. For a series of similar acts, time runs from the last one, and the tribunal can accept a late claim if it is just and equitable to do so.

Where a complaint is well founded the tribunal can make a declaration of the worker's rights, order compensation and recommend action to reduce the adverse effect on the worker. Compensation is what the tribunal considers just and equitable having regard to the breach and any loss attributable to it, and the regulations set no upper limit.

For breaches of equal treatment, compensation must be at least two weeks' pay unless the tribunal decides, taking account of the conduct of both sides, that this is not just and equitable. A week's pay is the higher of the average weekly basic pay the worker actually received and the average weekly pay they should have received under equal treatment, over the four weeks to the end of the assignment (or to the date of the complaint).

Compensation for these breaches does not include injury to feelings.

Make a claim to an employment tribunal (opens in a new tab)

Agency Workers Regulations 2010: guidance for recruiters (opens in a new tab)

Legal basis

Primary legislation and key regulations

Employment Rights Act 1996 Primary 1996 · UK-wide Agency Workers Regulations 2010 SI 2010 · UK-wide The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 SI 2026 · UK-wide

Browse UK legislation legislation.gov.uk

Official guidance

Agency workers: your rights (opens in a new tab)

GOV.UK · Great Britain

Engage and manage agency workers

Who counts as an agency worker

What you must provide from the first day

What you must provide after 12 weeks

Count the 12 weeks

Do not structure assignments to avoid the rights

Share responsibility with the agency

If a worker brings a claim

Legal basis

Official guidance

Next steps

Growing your business

Start importing goods to the UK

Transfer ownership of your business

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Meet your employment agency regulatory duties