The Employment Agencies Act 1973 (c.35) is a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Act of Parliament and part of a wider body of

UK agency worker law United Kingdom agency worker law refers to the law which regulates people's work through employment agencies in the United Kingdom. Though statistics are disputed, there are currently between half a million and one and a half million agency wor ...

. It regulates the conduct of

employment agencies An employment agency is an organization which matches employers to employees. In developed countries, there are multiple private businesses which act as employment agencies and a publicly-funded employment agency. Public employment agencies One ...

which recruit and manage temporary and permanent labour. It applies to approximately 17,000 employment agencies operating in the UK. It was introduced by a private member's bill by

Kenneth Lewis Sir Kenneth Lewis (1 July 1916 – 2 July 1997) was a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament of the United Kingdom for Rutland and Stamford from 1959 to 1983, and following boundary changes for Stamfo ...

, member of parliament for Rutland and Stamford.

History

Introduction

In its original form, the Act provided for a system of licensing. Each business which wanted to set up an employment agency was required to have a license which would be denied or revoked if set standards (e.g. no registration fees for workers; no advertising of non-existent jobs) were not followed. The Act came at the same time as similar reforms around Europe, for instance, the German ''Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz'' (Employee Hiring Law of 1972). Regulations prescribing further detailed rules were implemented in 1976.

Amendments

In 1994, the Conservative government, in its

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

drive, abolished the system of licenses with the Deregulation and Contracting Out Act 1994. Instead, enforcement of regulations would rely on the

Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate is a division of the Employment Relations Directorate, part of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, which is meant to oversee employment agencies operating in the United Kingd ...

. In 1999 the

Employment Relations Act 1999 The Employment Relations Act 1999c 26 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom. It made significant amendments in UK labour law to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. Provisions Trade unions Sections 1 to 6 concer ...

s.31 with Sch. 7 empowering the Secretary of State to make further regulations affecting agencies and their workers. In 2003 new regulations were introduced, replacing those from 1976. The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003see DBERR'
guidance
on the Regulations] prohibit the charging of fees, except in a small number of mostly arts related professions (e.g. modelling). The additions made in 2003 were few, primarily relating to confidentiality of information and candidate qualification checks.

Notes

External links

* Directgov site o
"what is an agency worker?"
*

DBERR The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) was a United Kingdom government department. The department was created on 28 June 2007 on the disbanding of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and was itself disbanded ...

'
website
for the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate * Employment Agency Standards Inspectorat
guidance
{{UK labour statutes United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 1973 Temporary employment agencies United Kingdom labour law Employment agencies of the United Kingdom

History

Introduction

Amendments

See also

Notes

External links