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WORKER HANDBOOK

Given to every worker when they register · Conduct Regulations 2003, Working Time Regulations 1998, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Equality Act 2010

This handbook is given to every worker who registers with HIRINGUK LTD. It is published here in full, before anybody signs anything, because a handbook you only see after you have agreed to it is not a handbook, it is a defence.

Draft 0.9 draft. It is being reviewed clause by clause. If you spot something wrong, out of date, or written to protect us rather than to tell you something useful, tell us and we will change it and say who found it.

1. Who we are, and what this book is

This handbook is for people who take assignments through us. It sits alongside your terms of engagement and the assignment details you get before each job. Where this book and your signed terms disagree, the signed terms win, and you should tell us so we can fix the book.

We are an EMPLOYMENT BUSINESS. That means when you are on an assignment you work under the client's day to day direction, but you are paid by us and your contract is with us. We are also an employment agency when we introduce somebody for a permanent job.

Read it once. You will not be asked to memorise it, and nothing in it is designed to catch you out. If a page reads as though it exists to protect us rather than to tell you something useful, that is a fault and we want to hear about it.

2. You never pay us. Not once, not for anything

Where this comes from: Regulation 5, Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003

We do not charge you to find you work. We do not charge a registration fee, an admin fee, a fee for holding your CV, or a fee for the checks we run on you. Charging a work seeker for finding them work is prohibited.

We will not require you to buy a service, a course, a uniform, a ticket or insurance from us or from anybody we are connected to as a CONDITION of getting work. If a job genuinely needs a ticket you do not hold, we will tell you what it is and what it usually costs, and the choice is entirely yours.

If anybody ever asks you for money in our name, that person is not acting for us. Tell us the same day.

3. Which of the three you are, and why it decides everything

Where this comes from: Employment Rights Act 1996 section 230; Autoclenz v Belcher [2011] UKSC 41; Uber v Aslam [2021] UKSC 5

There are THREE employment statuses in this country and no others: EMPLOYEE, WORKER, and SELF EMPLOYED. Every right you have depends on which one you are, so it is the first thing this book tells you rather than the thing it avoids.

On assignment through us you are a WORKER. That gives you the National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, rest breaks and the daily and weekly limits, protection from unlawful deductions, protection from discrimination, and protection if you blow the whistle. It does not give you redundancy pay, and it does not give you the right to claim ordinary unfair dismissal, because those belong to employees.

WATCH THE WORDS OTHER OUTFITS USE. Flexi worker, associate, operative, contractor, partner, self employed courier. None of those is a status. They are labels, and some of them are chosen precisely because they sound like something without being anything.

AND THE LABEL DOES NOT DECIDE IT. This is the part worth knowing. The Supreme Court has held twice that what matters is the REALITY of the arrangement, not what the contract calls it. If you are told when to turn up, what to wear and how to do it, and you cannot send somebody else in your place, a tribunal can find you a worker no matter what you signed. People have won substantial holiday pay and minimum wage claims years after being told they were self employed.

If you ever want to know which you are with us, ask, and we will answer in one word rather than in a paragraph designed to be ambiguous.

4. How you are paid, and what comes out

Where this comes from: Employment Rights Act 1996, National Minimum Wage Act 1998

WHEN YOU ARE PAID: WEEKLY, EVERY FRIDAY, ONE WEEK IN ARREARS. Work a week, get paid for it the Friday after. We name the day because a person arranging childcare or a rent date needs a day of the week and not the word weekly. If a Friday is a bank holiday the money goes on the last working day BEFORE it, never after.

PAYE. You are paid through our payroll with income tax and National Insurance deducted at source, and you get a payslip that shows every deduction separately.

WE WILL NEVER PUT YOU THROUGH AN UMBRELLA COMPANY. Not as an option, not as a default, not because a client asked. An umbrella takes a margin out of your pay for administration we should be doing, and it commonly moves the employer's National Insurance and the apprenticeship levy onto your assignment rate so that the headline figure looks bigger than what lands in your bank.

A driver or a tradesman who genuinely runs their own limited company can be engaged that way where the role and the working arrangements properly allow it. That is a real decision with tax consequences, and we will not push you into it to save ourselves money.

You will never be paid below the National Minimum Wage for your age. If you ever think you have been, tell us and we will check it and put it right, and we would rather you asked and were wrong than did not ask.

5. Holiday pay

Where this comes from: Working Time Regulations 1998

You build up paid holiday from your first day. For work with irregular hours, holiday accrues at 12.07 per cent of the hours you work, which is 5.6 weeks expressed as a percentage.

Where holiday pay is paid as you go rather than when you take leave, IT WILL BE SHOWN AS ITS OWN LINE ON YOUR PAYSLIP. That is the whole difference between it being lawful and being a problem: rolled up holiday pay hidden inside an hourly rate so the rate looks better is not acceptable and is where most agency pay disputes start.

You can ask us at any time what your holiday balance is and we will tell you the same day.

6. Timesheets, and what we cannot do to you

Where this comes from: Regulation 12, Conduct Regulations 2003

Get your timesheet signed by the client at the end of the week. It is the cleanest way for everybody to agree what you worked.

BUT: we cannot refuse to pay you, or delay paying you, just because a timesheet has not been signed. Where a client will not sign, or has gone home, or disputes the hours, our job is to establish what you actually worked and pay you for it. Any agency that tells you no signature means no money is telling you something the regulations do not allow.

If your pay is ever short, tell us and we will not wait for the next pay run to fix it if we can avoid it.

7. Before your first shift

Where this comes from: Regulation 19, Conduct Regulations 2003

We check your right to work in the UK before you start. We look at the original document or check a share code, and we record the date and who did it. This is not optional and there is no way round it.

We check that you have the qualifications the job actually needs, and we check them by card and number rather than by asking. If a job needs a ticket you do not hold, we will say so rather than send you and hope.

You must tell us if anything changes: a licence category lost, a medical condition that affects the work, a ticket that expires, a conviction that affects your eligibility for the role. Telling us early almost always means we can find you something else. Not telling us usually ends the assignment.

8. Hours, breaks and the 48 hour week

Where this comes from: Working Time Regulations 1998

The average working week is limited to 48 hours over a reference period. You may choose to opt out of that limit in writing, and you may cancel that opt out by giving notice. THE CHOICE IS YOURS. We will not make an opt out a condition of getting work, and a client who insists on one before you start is a client we will argue with.

You are entitled to a 20 minute rest break when you work more than six hours, daily rest between shifts and weekly rest. Night workers have their own limits and are entitled to a free health assessment.

DRIVERS ARE DIFFERENT. If you drive in scope of EU or GB drivers' hours rules, those rules apply to you as well as the Road Transport Working Time Regulations, and they are stricter. Your driving hours, breaks and daily rest come first, and no instruction from a client or from us overrides them. If a run cannot be done legally, it does not get done. Say so and we will back you, every time, without exception.

9. Health and safety, and your right to stop

Where this comes from: Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 section 7 (your own duties), and sections 44 and 100 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (no detriment and no dismissal for refusing to work in serious and imminent danger)

While you are on assignment the client controls the workplace and carries the main duty for it. We are responsible for telling you what we know about the risks before you go, and for asking the client the right questions.

You have duties too: take reasonable care of yourself and of people affected by what you do, use the equipment and the protective equipment properly, and do not interfere with anything provided for safety.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO STOP. If you believe there is serious and imminent danger, you can leave or refuse to return, and the law protects you from being penalised for it. Ring us. We would far rather lose a booking than send you back into something you have told us is dangerous, and we will not quietly stop offering you work because you raised it. If we ever did, that itself would be unlawful.

Report every accident and every near miss on the day, to the client and to us. Near misses are worth reporting precisely because nothing happened: it is the cheapest information in safety.

10. Manual handling

Where this comes from: Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992

The order of the law is avoid, assess, reduce. Avoid the handling if it can reasonably be avoided, assess what cannot be avoided, and reduce the risk as far as reasonably practicable. Training is the last line, not the first.

THERE IS NO LEGAL MAXIMUM WEIGHT. Anybody who tells you 25 kilos is the limit is quoting a guideline figure from a chart, and that figure only applies to a load held close to the body at waist height, in front of you, with a good grip, in reasonable conditions. It drops sharply the moment the load is at arm's length, above shoulder height, below knee level, or you have to twist.

Before you lift: think about the route and where you are putting it down, get help or a machine if you need one, keep the load close to your body, bend your knees rather than your back, do not twist while loaded, and turn with your feet.

In this trade the real risk is not one heavy box. It is a hundred cages, or forty drops with a tail lift, or a shift spent at the back of a curtainsider. If the job as described to you does not match the job you find, stop and ring us before you do it forty more times.

11. If you drive for us

Where this comes from: Road Traffic Act 1988, drivers' hours rules

Check the vehicle before you move it and record the defects. If it is not roadworthy, do not take it out. A defect you drove on becomes yours as well as the operator's, and it is your licence.

Your tachograph card is yours and stays with you. Never let anybody else use it, never drive on somebody else's, and never run without one where one is required. Falsifying records is a criminal offence and it ends everything.

Do not touch a hand held phone while driving. Not at lights, not in traffic. The penalty is six points and a fine, and for anybody who passed their test in the last two years six points means the licence goes.

Tell us the same day about any accident, any fixed penalty, any points, any change to your licence categories and any change to your medical fitness. We check licences at intervals with your share code anyway, but finding out from the DVLA rather than from you is a bad way to start a conversation.

12. Drink and drugs

Where this comes from: Road Traffic Act 1988, Transport and Works Act 1992

Do not attend an assignment under the influence of alcohol or drugs. For safety critical work, and all driving and plant work is safety critical, this is absolute rather than a matter of degree.

Prescription and over the counter medicine counts. Some perfectly legal medicines make you unfit to drive or to operate machinery, and some are covered by the drug driving limits. If a doctor or a pharmacist has told you not to drive or operate machinery, tell us before the shift, not after. WE WILL FIND YOU SOMETHING ELSE WHERE WE CAN. You will not be punished for telling us.

Clients in logistics, rail, aviation and construction often run their own testing regimes as a condition of site access. Where they do, we will tell you before you accept the assignment, not on the gate.

If you have a problem with drink or drugs and you come to us before it becomes an incident, we will treat it as a health matter and help you find support. After an incident, we have far fewer options. That is not a threat, it is just the truth about how these things go.

13. If you cannot make a shift

Ring. Do not text and hope, and do not tell the client only. Ring us as early as you possibly can, because the whole job at our end is finding a replacement before the client is short, and an hour of warning is worth more to everybody than an apology afterwards.

There is an out of hours number for exactly this. Use it at four in the morning without hesitating.

You will not lose your place with us for being ill. You may lose it for not telling anybody.

Statutory sick pay may be payable depending on your earnings and the length of the absence, and we will tell you plainly whether it is and what to send us.

14. Night work, and the check nobody offers you

Where this comes from: Regulation 7, Working Time Regulations 1998

If you regularly work at least three hours between 11pm and 6am you are a NIGHT WORKER, and that is a legal category with things attached to it, not just a shift pattern.

YOU ARE ENTITLED TO A FREE HEALTH ASSESSMENT before you start night work and at regular intervals afterwards. Free means free to you. Ask us and we arrange it. Almost nobody is offered this and almost nobody asks, which is why it is in here in capitals.

A night worker's normal hours are limited to an average of eight in twenty four, averaged over seventeen weeks. Where the work involves SPECIAL HAZARDS or heavy physical or mental strain, the eight hours is an absolute limit in any twenty four and there is no averaging at all.

If a health assessment says night work is making you ill, you should be moved to day work where there is day work to move you to. Tell us. It is not a complaint and it will not cost you your assignment.

Driving is the exception that swallows the rule: the drivers' hours and working time rules for drivers are stricter and they win. See the driving section.

15. Your pension, and the trick with the three months

Where this comes from: Pensions Act 2008, automatic enrolment

Agency workers get a workplace pension like anybody else, and WE are the employer for that purpose, not the client. If you are 22 or over, under State Pension age and earning over the threshold, you are enrolled automatically and we pay in as well as you.

THE THREE MONTHS. The law lets an employer postpone enrolment for up to three months. Used properly it stops pointless paperwork for a one week assignment. Used the other way it means somebody who works eleven weeks at a time is never enrolled, ever, and nobody explains why their pension never appeared. If we postpone you, we tell you the date it ends.

If you earn under the threshold you can still ASK to join, and below one figure we have to let you in and below another we have to let you in and pay in too. Ask, and we will tell you which side of it you are on rather than leaving you to work it out.

You can opt out, and if you do it within the first month you get your money back. Opting out is your decision and nobody here will push you either way, because an employer inducing somebody to opt out is unlawful and because it would be a rotten thing to do.

16. If you are ill

Where this comes from: Statutory Sick Pay, Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992

Agency workers can and do get Statutory Sick Pay. Being temporary is not a reason to be refused it, and if anybody tells you otherwise ask them to put it in writing.

TWO THINGS CHANGED ON 6 APRIL 2026 and both of them help the people on this board most. Sections 10 and 11 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 came into force that day. The THREE WAITING DAYS ARE GONE, so SSP is paid from the FIRST day of sickness rather than the fourth. And the LOWER EARNINGS LIMIT TEST IS GONE, so you are no longer shut out of SSP for earning too little, which used to catch anybody on short or irregular hours.

If you earn under the old limit you now get the flat rate OR 80 per cent of your normal weekly pay, whichever is LOWER. That is less than the full flat rate, and it is a great deal more than the nothing it used to be.

If you still do not qualify we must give you a form explaining why, so you can claim Employment and Support Allowance instead. That form is your right, not a courtesy.

Tell us as early as you can, and keep telling us. You need a fit note from a doctor once you have been off more than seven days including weekends. For seven days or fewer you self certify and nobody should be sending you to a GP for a note you do not need.

Being ill is not misconduct. We will not end an assignment because you were genuinely sick, and if a client asks us to, we will tell them no and tell you that they asked.

17. Time off for your family, including the two nobody mentions

Where this comes from: Employment Rights Act 1996; Carer's Leave Act 2023; Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018

Ask us. That is the short version, because these rights are a thicket and which ones reach you depends on your status and sometimes on how long you have been with us. We would rather work it out with you than have you assume you have nothing.

CARER'S LEAVE. A week off a year to look after a dependant with a long term care need. It is unpaid, and it is a DAY ONE right: no qualifying period at all. It came in during 2024 and hardly anybody knows it exists, including plenty of people who have needed it.

TIME OFF FOR DEPENDANTS. Unpaid, immediate, for an emergency: your child is ill, the school rings, your care arrangement collapses. It is also a day one right, it does not need planning, and it does not come out of your holiday.

PARENTAL BEREAVEMENT LEAVE. Two weeks if you lose a child under 18, or a baby stillborn after 24 weeks. Day one. There is statutory pay with it if you meet the earnings and service test. Nobody should have to look this up at the worst moment of their life, which is why it is written here in advance.

MATERNITY, PATERNITY, ADOPTION AND SHARED PARENTAL LEAVE AND PAY, and unpaid parental leave. These are the ones where status matters most: some are employee rights and some reach workers, and where statutory maternity pay does not apply there is usually Maternity Allowance from the DWP instead. That is a real amount of money and people miss it because nobody told them to look.

FLEXIBLE WORKING. You can ask from day one, twice a year, and we have to give you an answer within a set period rather than letting it drift. Asking is not a black mark and it will not affect what we offer you.

18. When something gets broken, and who pays for it

Where this comes from: Sections 13 to 22, Employment Rights Act 1996

Sooner or later somebody clips a bollard, drops a pallet or loses a scanner. Here is the rule, and it is the one agencies bend most often.

WE CANNOT TAKE MONEY OUT OF YOUR WAGES FOR IT unless a written term was given to you BEFORE the thing happened, or you agreed to it in writing beforehand. Not verbally. Not a policy you were told about afterwards. Not a form put in front of you on the day. If the paperwork was not there first, the deduction is unlawful.

That is the law and it applies to us as much as to anybody, so if we ever get it wrong, say so and quote this page back to us.

There is extra protection if you work in retail: deductions for cash shortages or stock going missing are capped at a tenth of your gross pay on any one pay day.

None of this means damage does not matter. Report it straight away, including when it was your fault, and particularly when it was. An unreported knock on a vehicle is a much bigger problem than a reported one, and nobody here has ever been dropped for owning up.

19. Fines, tickets and penalties if you drive

Where this comes from: Road Traffic Act 1988 section 172; Employment Rights Act 1996 section 13

A SPEEDING TICKET OR ANY MOVING OFFENCE IS YOURS. It goes on your licence, it is your fine, and nobody can take it for you. That is not us being hard: it is how the law works and it protects you, because the alternative is a system where somebody else decides whose licence gets the points.

Never let anybody talk you into naming a different driver, and never agree to be named for a journey that was not yours. Giving false information about who was driving is a serious offence in its own right and it has ended careers that a three point fine would not have touched.

A PARKING OR BUS LANE PENALTY is different. It goes to whoever the vehicle is registered to, and they can pass liability on. If that is going to be you, it still cannot come out of your wages unless the written term was there first. Same rule as damage.

If a ticket arrives because of an instruction you were given, tell us. A client who sends you somewhere with nowhere legal to stop has created that ticket, and that is a conversation for us to have with them rather than for you to swallow.

20. If somebody wants to search you

Warehouses search people. It is normal and it is usually about theft figures rather than about you. What is worth knowing is where the line is.

NOBODY EXCEPT THE POLICE CAN SEARCH YOU WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. Not a client, not a supervisor, not us. A search happens because you agree to it. A contract can make refusing a disciplinary matter, and that is lawful, but nothing turns it into a power to put hands on you.

If you are searched it should be by somebody of the same sex, with a witness there, out of sight of everybody else, and it should not go further than bags, pockets and outer clothing.

If a search goes past that, stop it, leave, and ring us the same day. You will not lose the assignment for refusing something nobody was entitled to do.

One more: TIME SPENT QUEUING TO BE SEARCHED AT THE END OF A SHIFT is worth asking about, because whether it counts as working time has been fought over more than once. If it is regularly costing you twenty minutes a day, tell us and we will take it up.

21. Equality, and the duty we owe you on harassment

Where this comes from: Equality Act 2010, Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Act 2023

Nobody is treated differently because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. That covers who we put forward, what we pay and how we treat you.

If a client asks us to exclude people on any of those grounds, WE REFUSE THE BOOKING AND WE SAY WHY. We would rather lose the client, and we have written this down so you know it before you ever have to wonder.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT: since October 2024 an employer has a positive duty to take reasonable steps to PREVENT sexual harassment of its workers, including by third parties such as a client's staff. That duty is ours and we take it seriously. We ask about it when we place you, we act on what you tell us, and we will pull you off an assignment rather than leave you on one where it is happening.

If you need an adjustment because of a disability, tell us. It is usually simpler than people expect and we would rather make it than lose you.

22. Raising something, including about us

Where this comes from: Regulation 32, Conduct Regulations 2003, and the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures

Tell us. In person, by phone, by email, or on the complaints form on the site, whichever is easiest. You get a reference straight away and an acknowledgement in writing.

Every complaint gets a full written answer, normally within 10 working days. If it will take longer we tell you why and when.

If you are not satisfied, it goes to the director, and that route is published on the site rather than hidden. You can also complain to the Fair Work Agency, which took over the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate on 7 April 2026, and about data to the Information Commissioner. We would rather you came to us first, but we are not going to pretend those routes do not exist.

Raising something will not cost you work. If you ever think it has, say so directly, because that would be a far more serious matter than whatever you raised in the first place.

23. What ends an assignment

Where this comes from: ACAS Code of Practice

Most assignments end because the work ends. That is normal and it is not a reflection on you.

An assignment can end early if the client no longer needs you, if the work is not being done to the standard agreed, or if something serious happens. Where the reason is about your work or your conduct WE WILL TELL YOU WHAT IT WAS, and you will get the chance to give your side before we decide anything that affects future work.

Things that will end an assignment on the spot: violence or threats, theft, being unfit for safety critical work through drink or drugs, falsifying records or timesheets, and deliberately breaking a safety rule that puts somebody at risk.

The end of one assignment is not the end of your relationship with us, and in most cases we will be ringing you about the next one.

24. Speaking up about something serious

Where this comes from: Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998

If you believe there is a criminal offence, a danger to health and safety, damage to the environment, a miscarriage of justice, a breach of a legal obligation, or an attempt to cover any of those up, you can report it and the law protects you from being penalised for it.

You do not have to be right. You have to believe it reasonably and be acting in the public interest.

Bring it to the director, by any route you like, including anonymously. If you would rather not come to us at all, there are prescribed bodies for each area, including the Health and Safety Executive, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency and HMRC, and going to them directly is also protected.

25. Forced labour, and what to look for

Where this comes from: Modern Slavery Act 2015

Agency work in driving, warehousing, food and construction is exactly where labour exploitation turns up in this country, so we are not going to be coy about it.

Signs worth knowing: somebody else controlling a worker's bank account or documents, several workers paid into one account, a third party answering for somebody or attending their interview, transport and housing controlled by whoever arranged the work, and a worker who does not seem to know what they are being paid.

If you see any of that, on our assignment or anywhere else, tell us, or ring the Modern Slavery Helpline on 08000 121 700. It is free, it is confidential and it runs at any hour. You will never be in trouble with us for raising it, including if you turn out to be wrong.

Every number worth ringing is on our own page at hiringuk.co.uk under forced labour, including the Salvation Army line for anybody coming out of it, which most posters leave off. We paid nothing to put that page up and there is nothing on it to buy.

IF YOU WOULD RATHER WATCH IT THAN READ IT, Stronger Together publishes a free film following two workers, Daniel and Weronika, who were brought to this country and exploited. It carries subtitles in several languages. It is on their resources page at stronger2gether.org and it costs nothing. We point you there rather than putting the player on our own page, because embedding somebody else's video would drop their tracking onto a page about protecting you.

26. What we hold about you

Where this comes from: UK GDPR, Data Protection Act 2018

We hold what we need to put you forward for work and to pay you lawfully: your identity and right to work evidence, your qualifications, your work history and references, your pay records, and for drivers your licence and any medical information the role requires.

WE DO NOT SELL IT AND THERE IS NO SEARCHABLE DATABASE OF PEOPLE HERE FOR ANYBODY TO BUY ACCESS TO. Your details go to the client you are being put forward to, and to nobody else.

Every retention period is published as a number of months on the site, not as the words 'as long as necessary'. You can ask for a copy of everything we hold, ask us to correct it, and ask us to delete what we are not required to keep.

27. What is a right and what is a benefit, and why it matters

Where this comes from: Agency Workers Regulations 2010, regulations 12 and 13; Working Time Regulations 1998; National Minimum Wage Act 1998

A RIGHT IS SOMETHING YOU CAN ENFORCE. A BENEFIT IS SOMETHING THAT CAN BE WITHDRAWN. Knowing which is which is the difference between asking for something and being given it, and some agencies list the two together on the same page under the heading benefits.

WE HAVE READ ONE THAT PUTS THE CLIENT'S CANTEEN, REST ROOM AND CAR PARK IN ITS LIST OF BENEFITS. Those are not a benefit. Regulation 12 of the Agency Workers Regulations gives you access to the client's collective facilities and amenities FROM YOUR FIRST DAY, on the same terms as their own staff, unless there is an objective justification for withholding them. Canteen, transport, car park, creche, vending, rest room. Nobody is being generous.

REGULATION 13 IS THE OTHER DAY ONE RIGHT AND ALMOST NOBODY KNOWS IT. The client has to tell you about its own vacancies, in the same way it tells its own staff. If jobs go on a noticeboard in the canteen, you are entitled to read that noticeboard.

The same page lists Statutory Sick Pay as a benefit and says it is based on the hours you have accrued. IT IS NOT. Holiday accrues with hours; SSP does not. SSP is a weekly amount set by law, and since 6 April 2026 it starts on the FIRST day of sickness and the old earnings limit that used to shut out part timers is gone. Somebody on very low earnings now gets the flat rate or 80 per cent of their normal weekly pay, whichever is lower. None of that depends on hours accrued and none of it is anybody's gift.

HOLIDAY, THE MINIMUM WAGE AND A PAYSLIP ARE ALSO NOT BENEFITS. They are the Working Time Regulations, the National Minimum Wage Act and section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. An agency that lists them under benefits is describing the law as a favour.

AND THE FAIR HALF, BECAUSE THIS CUTS BOTH WAYS. A discount scheme, a gym rate, a telephone doctor line, weekly pay rather than monthly: those ARE real benefits. Nobody has to provide them, they cost the agency money, and they are worth having. The objection is not to offering them. It is to mixing them in with the law so that the whole list reads like generosity.

ONE TO WATCH, because it is usually stated too simply. Statutory unpaid parental leave needs EMPLOYEE status and one year of continuous employment. Most agency workers are workers on a contract for services rather than employees, so an agency saying you may apply for it, with no more than that, has told you very little. Ask us and we will work out which of these actually reach you, and say so in writing.

28. If the client wants to take you on

Where this comes from: Regulation 10, Conduct Regulations 2003

Good. That is usually the best outcome for you and we are not going to stand in the way of it.

There may be a transfer fee payable by the CLIENT, not by you, and the client always has the alternative of an extended hire period instead of paying it. That is between us and them. It is never deducted from your pay and it is never a reason we will discourage you from taking a permanent job.

Tell us when it is being discussed rather than after you have started. It keeps everybody straight and it costs you nothing.

29. Joining a union, which is nobody's business but yours

Where this comes from: Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, sections 137 and 146; Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010

YOU MAY JOIN A TRADE UNION. You do not need our permission, you do not need the client's, and you do not have to tell either of us. You may also choose not to join one, and that is equally your business.

WE WILL NOT REFUSE YOU WORK FOR IT. Refusing somebody an assignment because they are, or are not, a union member is unlawful under section 137, and subjecting a worker to a detriment for union membership or activities is unlawful under section 146.

WE DO NOT KEEP A LIST AND WE WILL NOT CONSULT ONE. Compiling or using a list of union members to discriminate in recruitment has been banned outright since the 2010 blacklisting regulations, which exist because firms in the construction trade in this country ran exactly such a list for decades. If a client ever asks us whether you are in a union, the answer is that we do not hold that and would not pass it on if we did.

If you are in a union and want them involved in something we are dealing with, bring them in. It does not offend us and it does not change how we handle it.

30. A criminal record, and the part most agencies get wrong

Where this comes from: Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974; Police Act 1997; Equality Act 2010

MOST CONVICTIONS BECOME SPENT, and once one is spent you are entitled to answer as if it never happened. We will not ask you to disclose a spent conviction for ordinary warehouse or driving work, and if a form of ours ever seems to, tell us, because the form is wrong.

SOME ROLES ARE DIFFERENT AND WE WILL SAY SO BEFORE YOU APPLY. Work with children or vulnerable adults, and some security and airside roles, are exempt from the Act and need a standard or enhanced DBS check. Exempt means more is disclosed, not that everything is: filtering rules still keep older minor matters off the certificate.

AN UNSPENT CONVICTION IS NOT AN AUTOMATIC NO. We look at what it was, how long ago, and whether it has anything to do with the work. A driving disqualification matters for a driving job. A shoplifting conviction from eleven years ago does not tell us anything useful about whether you can pick orders.

WE NEVER CHARGE YOU FOR A CHECK WE REQUIRE. If a role needs a DBS and we are placing you into it, the cost is ours. An agency deducting a check from a work seeker's pay is charging for work-finding services, which is prohibited.

AND THERE IS A RACE DIMENSION TO THIS worth saying out loud. A blanket rule about criminal records falls harder on some groups than others, which can make it indirect discrimination under the Equality Act. That is a second reason we look at cases one at a time, on top of it simply being fairer.

31. Boots, hi-vis and what you must never be charged for

Where this comes from: Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 as amended in 2022; Employment Agencies Act 1973 section 6; Employment Rights Act 1996 Part II

PPE IS FREE TO YOU, ALWAYS. If the job needs safety boots, a hi-vis, gloves, ear defenders, a hard hat or anything else that protects you, it is provided at no cost. Since April 2022 that duty covers limb (b) workers and not only employees, which is most agency workers, so the old dodge of calling somebody a worker to avoid buying them boots does not work any more.

WE DO NOT DEDUCT IT FROM YOUR FIRST WEEK EITHER. Not as a loan, not as a deposit, not as a refundable charge. A deduction from wages has to be required by law, set out in your contract before the event, or agreed by you in writing beforehand, and we do not ask for that agreement for safety kit.

ORDINARY WORKWEAR IS A DIFFERENT QUESTION and we will be straight about which is which. A branded polo shirt the client wants you in is not PPE. We provide it anyway rather than argue about a nine pound shirt, but you should know the distinction exists, because some agencies use it to charge for things that ARE PPE by calling them uniform.

IF IT IS DAMAGED OR WORN OUT, TELL US AND WE REPLACE IT. Worn out boots are not a personal problem to be solved on your own money. Turning up in unsafe footwear because you could not afford new ones is how people lose toes.

WHAT WE ASK OF YOU: wear it, look after it, and hand back anything issued to you when the assignment ends. If you keep it we may ask for it back. We do not take it out of your pay.

If anything in this book is not being followed, that is a complaint and we want it. Nothing in here is decoration. How to complain

HIRINGUK LTD, company number 17414012. Worker handbook, version 0.9 draft. Reviewed at least once a year and whenever the law changes. © HIRINGUK LTD. This document is issued under Conduct Regulations 2003, Working Time Regulations 1998, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Equality Act 2010.

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