Agency worker day one rights

Overview

As an agency worker you have two distinct sets of rights. The first set applies from your very first day on an assignment. The second set, mainly about equal pay and basic working conditions, applies only after you have completed 12 weeks in the same role. On top of both of these, some general worker rights apply to you regardless of your agency status. It helps to keep these three categories separate, because they come from different sources and are enforced differently.

The main source for your agency-specific rights is the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. You count as an agency worker where you have a contract with an agency (for example a temp agency) but work temporarily under the supervision and direction of a hirer. You are not covered if you are genuinely self-employed and running your own business, or if you use the agency only to find permanent work.

Your day one rights under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010

From the first day of an assignment, before any qualifying period, the hirer must give you two specific things.

First, access to shared facilities and amenities on the same basis as the hirer’s own comparable staff. This is set out in regulation 12 and typically covers things such as a staff canteen, a workplace crèche or childcare facilities, car parking, a common room, toilet or shower facilities, and transport services such as a works bus or local pick-up point. You can be treated less favourably only where the hirer can objectively justify it, which is a genuine business reason unconnected to your agency status rather than mere cost-saving or administrative convenience.

Second, access to information about the hirer’s internal job vacancies from your first day, so you have the same opportunity as directly recruited staff to find permanent work with the hirer. This can be satisfied by a general announcement in a suitable place, for example a notice board or intranet, rather than a personal notification.

Other rights you have from day one

Several important rights come not from the Agency Workers Regulations but from your status as a worker, and these also apply from the start of an assignment.

You are entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for your age. You accrue paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998 from your first day, at a statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks per year pro rata. You are protected by working time limits, including rest breaks and, unless you have opted out, the 48-hour average weekly working limit. You are protected against unlawful discrimination and harassment under the Equality Act 2010 from day one, covering characteristics such as sex, race, disability, age, religion, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity. You have whistleblowing protection if you make a qualifying protected disclosure, and you are covered by health and safety law while on assignment. You should also receive a payslip and a written statement of the type of contract and pay before you start work through the agency.

The agency itself has duties too. Under the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 it generally cannot charge you a fee for finding you work, must tell you clearly whether you are engaged under a contract of service or a contract for services, and must agree your pay terms with you in writing before your first assignment.

Rights that arrive only after 12 weeks

It is worth being clear about what is not a day one right, because this is a common source of confusion. After you complete 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, regulation 5 gives you the right to equal treatment on basic working and employment conditions as if the hirer had recruited you directly. This mainly covers pay, working time, night work, rest periods and breaks, and annual leave. It does not extend to occupational sick pay, pensions beyond auto-enrolment, or redundancy pay.

Also after 12 weeks, if you are a pregnant agency worker you gain the right to paid time off for antenatal appointments, and pregnant workers gain the right to be moved to suitable alternative work or paid if no safe assignment is available.

The 12-week clock counts calendar weeks in which you work at least part of the week in the same role, and certain breaks pause rather than reset the count, while others break the qualifying period. Be alert to arrangements that appear designed to prevent you reaching 12 weeks, such as being rotated between roles or given repeated short breaks, because there are anti-avoidance provisions that can defeat deliberate attempts to deny you equal treatment.

If your rights are not being respected

If you are being denied facilities access or vacancy information, the sensible order of steps is usually as follows.

1. Ask informally first. Raise it with your agency contact or the hirer’s line manager, since many breaches are down to oversight rather than deliberate refusal.

2. Put it in writing. Under regulation 16 you can make a written request to your agency for a written statement setting out the treatment you say you should receive. The agency must respond within 28 days, and if it fails to do so a tribunal can draw inferences from that failure.

3. Consider an employment tribunal claim. A complaint about breach of the day one facilities or vacancy rights, or the after-12-weeks equal treatment rights, can be brought in the employment tribunal. The normal time limit is three months less one day from the date of the alleged breach, so act promptly. You must usually contact ACAS to start Early Conciliation before lodging a claim, and this can pause the time limit.

Responsibility for a breach can fall on the agency, the hirer, or both, depending on which of them was at fault, so it is worth identifying who controls the facility or decision in question.

Key facts that would sharpen this answer

The precise position depends on some details you have not given. It would help to know whether you are engaged directly by the agency or through an umbrella company, how long you have been in the current role, whether you have had any breaks in the assignment, and exactly which facility, information or condition you feel you are being denied. If your concern is really about pay parity rather than facilities, the 12-week threshold and your length of service become central. If your concern is discrimination or health and safety, those protections apply immediately regardless of the agency framework.