Agency Worker Rights

From the first day of an assignment, agency workers are entitled to:

• Access to collective facilities: Including canteens, childcare facilities, car parking, and other shared amenities that comparable workers employed directly by the hirer have access to — unless the hirer can objectively justify withholding access.
• Information on job vacancies: The hirer must inform agency workers of any relevant vacancies so they can apply for permanent roles.
• The right not to be subjected to detriment: You cannot be treated unfairly for asserting your rights under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010.

These rights apply from day one regardless of how long you have been in the role. Even if you are on your first day with a hirer, you cannot be denied access to the staff canteen or told about job vacancies in a way that excludes permanent direct hires.

After completing 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer, you are entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as a comparable employee hired directly. These conditions include:

• Pay (including the same basic hourly or daily rate)
• Working time — including breaks and rest periods
• Night work
• Annual leave (the statutory minimum — additional contractual leave is not covered)
• Paid time off for antenatal appointments

Importantly, equal treatment applies to basic pay — not to occupational sick pay, occupational pensions, or other contractual benefits beyond the core working conditions. However, the hirer must ensure the agency knows what a comparable direct employee earns so the agency can meet its obligations.

The Swedish Derogation (which allowed agencies to avoid equal pay obligations by employing workers on a permanent contract with pay between assignments) was abolished in April 2020.

The 12-week qualifying period is calculated as 12 calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer. Weeks count even if you work only one hour in that week. Time off for holidays, sick leave, jury service, and pregnancy-related absence counts towards the 12 weeks.

The qualifying period restarts if:

• You start a substantively different role with the same hirer
• There is a break of six or more weeks between assignments with the same hirer (unless the break is due to sickness, jury service, pregnancy, or similar protected reasons)
• You start a new assignment with a different hirer

Attempts by agencies or hirers to artificially reset the qualifying period — for example, by rotating workers between roles or inserting artificial breaks — may constitute anti-avoidance and could give rise to claims. If you believe your qualifying period has been deliberately manipulated, seek advice from Acas or an employment solicitor.

For many years, the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 contained a controversial provision known informally as the Swedish Derogation (or "pay between assignments" model). Under this arrangement, an agency could avoid the obligation to provide equal pay after 12 weeks by instead employing agency workers on a permanent contract that included a commitment to pay them between assignments — even when no work was available.

In practice, the Swedish Derogation was widely misused. Agencies used it to undercut the equal pay protections that the Regulations were designed to provide, often paying workers between assignments at the minimum wage level for very short periods, thereby satisfying the letter but not the spirit of the arrangement. Workers were frequently worse off than they would have been under straightforward equal treatment rules.

The Swedish Derogation was abolished with effect from 6 April 2020 by the Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2019. All agency workers are now entitled to equal treatment on pay after completing the 12-week qualifying period, without exception. There is no longer any mechanism for an agency to contract out of the equal pay obligation.

Following abolition, the current position is straightforward: after 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, you are entitled to the same basic pay as a comparable employee hired directly. The equal treatment rules cover basic hourly or daily rate, overtime rates, shift premiums, and payments for performance (where these apply to comparable direct hires). They do not extend to occupational sick pay, occupational pension contributions, or enhanced maternity/paternity pay beyond statutory minimums.

If you were employed under a Swedish Derogation contract before April 2020 and believe you were underpaid as a result, seek specialist advice, as time limits for historical claims may apply. For current assignments, verify with your agency that your pay reflects the comparable direct-hire rate after 12 weeks — request information about the hirer's pay structures if needed. The agency is required to provide this information.