AWR Guidance to be published for comment at end of March

AWR Guidance to be published for comment at end of March

The government has advised that it intends to publish draft guidance on the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 for all to see at the end of March, says the Association of Recruitment Consultancies (ARC).

The idea is understood to be that the draft will be open for comment for two weeks; thereafter final guidance will be published some time at the end of April/ early May.

Ben Grover, speaking for the ARC, said “Many have been waiting upon the guidance before deciding which strategy to follow once the regulations come into force in October. There is therefore considerable pressure to publish something sooner rather than later. The danger however is that people may take the draft guidance as read, and perhaps change their strategies prematurely even though the final guidance may in fact be different. Having said that this will be an opportunity for representation on the clarity which the guidance is meant to provide.”

The ARC’s position is that the guidance cannot change the law. Towards that end it has urged the Department of BIS to ensure that guidance is limited to accurate and succinct clarification in ambiguous areas coupled with simple explanations in the unambiguous areas.  However it remains to be seen what decisions the team at BIS have taken in terms of presentation.

ARC is continuing to work with the government on the draft guidance.