Agency workers rights sit at the heart of one of the most common working arrangements in Britain. If you find work through a recruitment agency, you form one corner of a triangular relationship between you, the agency and the hirer — and UK law gives you specific, enforceable protections. The Agency Workers Regulations 2010, often called the agency workers regulations, set out your agency workers rights from the first day of an assignment through to equal treatment once you complete a 12-week qualifying period.
This guide explains agency workers rights in full: who qualifies as an agency worker, what your day-one rights are, how the 12-week rule works, what the abolition of the Swedish derogation means for older contracts, where umbrella companies and IR35 fit in, and how to enforce your agency workers rights if they are breached.
What Is an Agency Worker? The Triangular Relationship
You are an agency worker if a temporary work agency supplies you to work temporarily for, and under the supervision and direction of, a hirer. This creates the classic triangular relationship at the centre of agency workers rights: the agency recruits you and usually pays you, the hirer directs your day-to-day work, and you provide the work itself.
The triangle matters because the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 split responsibilities between the two businesses. Broadly, the agency is responsible for your day-one information rights, while the hirer is responsible for giving you equal treatment after 12 weeks. If something goes wrong, your claim may be against the agency, the hirer, or both — which is why identifying each party’s role is the first step in protecting your agency workers rights.
Most agency workers are engaged as workers rather than employees, often on contracts for services or PAYE contracts with the agency. Your written terms should set out pay, hours and notice arrangements; if anything is unclear, our guide to contracts of employment explains what written particulars you should expect.
Day-One Agency Workers Rights
Some agency workers rights apply from the very first day of an assignment — there is no qualifying period. From day one, the hirer must give you:
- Access to collective facilities and amenities — such as the staff canteen, childcare facilities, car parking and transport services — on the same terms as comparable directly recruited staff.
- Information about relevant job vacancies — you must be told about permanent or other vacancies with the hirer so you have the same opportunity as directly recruited employees to apply.
These day-one agency workers rights are about integration, not pay. They stop hirers treating agency staff as second-class workers from the moment they arrive, and they apply whether your assignment lasts a day or a year.
The 12-Week Qualifying Period and Equal Treatment Rights
The best-known of all agency workers rights is the right to equal treatment after a 12-week qualifying period. Once you have worked in the same role with the same hirer for 12 continuous calendar weeks, you are entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as if you had been recruited directly by the hirer.
What “equal treatment” covers
Equal treatment covers pay and working time. Pay includes basic pay, overtime rates, shift allowances, bonuses linked to individual performance, holiday pay and vouchers with monetary value. Working time covers the length of the working day and week, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave.
It does not cover everything. Occupational sick pay, occupational pension schemes, redundancy pay, maternity and paternity rights beyond the statutory minimum, and bonuses linked purely to long service sit outside equal treatment. You keep your statutory rights — such as Statutory Sick Pay and the National Minimum Wage — regardless, and our overview of employment rights in the UK sets out those wider protections.
How the 12 weeks are counted
The clock counts calendar weeks in which you do any work for the hirer in the same role. You do not need to work full weeks: a single shift in a calendar week counts as a week. The role must be the same — if you move to a substantively different role with the same hirer, a new 12-week period begins.
Breaks, pauses and the clock
Not every gap resets the clock. A break of more than six weeks between assignments with the same hirer restarts the qualifying period, but shorter breaks are bridged. The clock merely pauses — rather than resets — during sickness or injury (up to 28 weeks), pregnancy and maternity-related absence, and annual leave. Deliberately structuring assignments to avoid the 12-week point can be unlawful: anti-avoidance rules penalise hirers and agencies that engineer breaks to defeat agency workers rights.
The Swedish Derogation: Abolished in April 2020
The Swedish derogation was an opt-out that once allowed agencies to avoid equal pay after 12 weeks if the agency worker had a permanent contract with the agency including pay between assignments. It was widely criticised for leaving agency workers on lower pay than directly hired colleagues, and it was abolished on 6 April 2020.
From that date, no new derogation contracts could be made and existing ones ceased to have effect. Agencies had to give affected workers a written statement confirming the change. If an agency still relies on a derogation-style arrangement to pay you less than comparable staff after 12 weeks, it is acting unlawfully.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies Regulations 2003
Alongside the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 sits an older but equally important set of rules: the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. These govern how agencies themselves must behave, and they add another layer to agency workers rights:
- An agency must not charge you a fee simply for finding you work or putting your details on its books.
- Before an assignment starts, the agency must agree written terms with you, including pay, hours and the type of work.
- The agency must not withhold your pay because it has not itself been paid by the hirer.
- Temp-to-perm transfer fees charged to hirers are restricted, so hirers cannot be locked into using agency staff indefinitely.
Breaches of the Conduct Regulations can be reported to the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate, and serious or repeated breaches can lead to prohibition orders against the agency.
Umbrella Companies, IR35 and Agency Workers Rights
Many agency assignments today are routed through umbrella companies. In that model, the umbrella company becomes your employer for payroll purposes: it pays you (after deducting tax, National Insurance and its margin), and it should provide payslips, holiday pay and statutory employment rights. Your agency workers rights under the 2010 Regulations still apply where you are genuinely an agency worker, and the hirer must still give you equal treatment after 12 weeks.
Be alert to two common problems. First, some umbrellas use non-transparent “rolled-up” holiday pay — lawful only if genuinely additional to normal pay and clearly identified. Second, deductions labelled as employment costs that are really the hirer’s or agency’s costs can push your effective pay below the National Minimum Wage, which is always unlawful.
IR35 — the off-payroll working rules — is a tax question, not an employment-rights question, but it often arises on the same assignments. If you work through your own personal service company, IR35 determines how your income is taxed, while the Agency Workers Regulations determine your workplace rights. Someone genuinely in business on their own account, working for clients rather than being supplied to a hirer, falls outside the Regulations entirely — which is why employment status is so important.
Employment Status: Worker, Employee or Self-Employed?
Agency workers are usually limb (b) workers: they personally provide work but are not employees. That status still brings valuable rights, including the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, rest breaks and protection from discrimination. Some agency workers are employees of the agency itself, typically on PAYE contracts, which adds rights such as statutory notice and redundancy pay after qualifying service.
Very long assignments can raise the question of whether you have become an employee of the hirer through an implied contract, but tribunals set a high bar. Labels are not decisive — a tribunal looks at control, mutuality of obligation and personal service. Sham self-employment, where you are called a contractor but treated as staff, does not defeat your agency workers rights.
Ending an Assignment: Termination and Detriment Protection
The hirer can usually end an assignment at short notice, and the agency is not obliged to find you another one — but neither may punish you for asserting your rights. The Regulations give agency workers specific protection: you must not be subjected to any detriment, and an employee must not be dismissed, for asserting agency workers rights. Asserting your rights includes requesting a written statement of your terms, asking for information to check equal treatment, or bringing tribunal proceedings.
If an assignment is ended because you asked about equal pay or complained about missing holiday pay, that is likely to be unlawful detriment. Keep copies of rotas, payslips, timesheets and any messages about the ending of the assignment — contemporaneous evidence is often decisive.
Enforcing Agency Workers Rights: Employment Tribunal Claims
If negotiation fails, agency workers rights are enforced in the employment tribunal. Liability is shared: the agency is generally liable for breaches of the day-one information and facilities rights, while the hirer is liable for breaches of equal treatment where the breach is attributable to it — and both can be liable where responsibility is shared.
Time limits are short: most claims must reach the tribunal within three months less one day of the breach, after notifying Acas for early conciliation. Remedies include declarations and compensation for financial loss. Our guide to the employment tribunal process walks through each stage of a claim, from Acas to the final hearing.
Agency Workers Rights: Frequently Asked Questions
Do agency workers get sick pay?
You are entitled to Statutory Sick Pay if you meet the earnings threshold, paid through whoever operates your payroll. The Regulations do not give you the hirer’s occupational sick pay scheme — that is one of the express exclusions from equal treatment.
Do agency workers get holiday pay?
Yes. You accrue the statutory minimum of 5.6 weeks’ paid annual leave per year, pro-rated for part-time or short assignments. Holiday pay should be paid when you take leave; opaque rolled-up holiday pay arrangements should be challenged.
Can an agency stop offering me work if I complain about my rights?
No. Removing you from rotas or ending your assignments because you asserted your agency workers rights is unlawful detriment, and you can claim compensation in the employment tribunal.
Is there a maximum length for an agency assignment?
The Regulations set no maximum, but very long assignments can raise employment-status arguments, and hirers sometimes move long-serving agency workers onto direct contracts. If your assignment has lasted years doing the same role as permanent staff, take advice on your status.
Key Takeaways on Agency Workers Rights
- Agency workers rights come mainly from the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, supported by the Conduct of Employment Agencies Regulations 2003.
- Day-one rights — access to facilities and vacancy information — apply immediately.
- After 12 weeks in the same role with the same hirer, you are entitled to equal treatment on pay, holidays and working time.
- The Swedish derogation was abolished in April 2020 and can no longer justify lower pay.
- Umbrella and IR35 arrangements change how you are paid and taxed, but they do not remove your core agency workers rights.
- You are protected from detriment or dismissal for asserting these rights, and breaches can be claimed in the employment tribunal within three months less one day.
If you believe your agency workers rights have been breached — whether through unequal pay after 12 weeks, missing holiday pay, or retaliation for raising the issue — act quickly. Gather your payslips, timesheets and written terms, raise the matter in writing with the agency and hirer, and seek advice before the tribunal time limit expires.
