Latest News – Agency Worker Discrimination – £10,878 awarded to agency worker not paid correct salary in accordance with AWR – Recruitment company escapes liability by making repeated requests for comparator information
AWR terms stipulate that after the 12 week qualifying period, an agency worker must, amongst other requirements, be paid the same or comparably to that as if they had been directly employed by the client to do the same job.
In the recent case of Stevens v Northolt High School (ET/3300621/2014), an agency worker was awarded over £10,000 compensation for underpayment by her hirer.
Mrs. Stevens was supplied by an agency as a temporary head of music to the hirer. After completing a 12-week qualifying period, Mrs. Stevens was still not being paid as much as she would have she been directly hired as the head of music by the hirer as an employee – a clear case of discrimination. She brought a claim against both the hirer and the agency under Regulation 5 of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/93). The hirer was underpaying her by around £98 per day for 111 days.
The employment tribunal considered what would be a ‘just and equitable’ amount of compensation to be payable to Mrs. Stevens by the hirer and the agency. The tribunal held the hirer solely liable for the infringement, on the grounds that the agency had repeatedly asked the hirer for information as to the appropriate salary for Mrs. Stevens and the hirer had not supplied this information. The hirer was thus liable for the compensation of £10,878 due to Mrs. Stevens for the amount that she had been underpaid by. However, if the regulations aren’t applied correctly then it can fall upon the agency to pay the compensation to the agency worker.
This ruling is a stark reminder of the IMPORTANCE of collating information from hirers at the outset of an assignment as to what they would pay someone directly to do the same or similar job and to keep a record of this, as this can be used as evidence of striving to COMPLY with the AWR.
Lack of records will appear that NO suitable action was taken.