The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003
2003 No. 3319
EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES, ETC.
The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003
17thDecember 2003
except regulations 26(7) and 32except regulations 26(7) and 326thApril 2004regulations 26(7) and 32regulations 26(7) and 326thJuly 2004
ARRANGEMENT OF REGULATIONS
PART I
General and Interpretation
1. |
Citation and commencement |
2. |
Interpretation |
3. |
The meaning of "connected" |
4. |
Transitional and Saving Provisions and Revocation |
PART II
General Obligations
5. |
Restriction on requiring work-seekers to use additional services |
6. |
Restriction on detrimental action relating to work-seekers working elsewhere |
7. |
Restriction on providing work-seekers in industrial disputes |
8. |
Restriction on paying work-seekers' remuneration |
9. |
Restriction on agencies and employment businesses purporting to act on a different basis |
10. |
Restriction on charges to hirers |
11. |
Entering into a contract on behalf of a client |
12. |
Prohibition on employment businesses withholding payment to work-seekers on certain grounds |
PART III
Requirements to be satisfied before services are provided
13. |
Notification of charges and the terms of offers |
14. |
Requirement to obtain agreement to terms with work-seekers |
15. |
Content of terms with work-seekers: Employment businesses |
16. |
Content of terms with work-seekers: Agencies |
17. |
Requirement to obtain agreement to terms with hirers |
PART IV
Requirements to be satisfied in relation to the introduction or supplyof a work-seeker to a hirer
18. |
Information to be obtained from a hirer |
19. |
Confirmation to be obtained about a work-seeker |
20. |
Steps to be taken for the protection of the work-seeker and the hirer |
21. |
Provision of information to work-seekers and hirers |
22. |
Additional requirements where professional qualifications are required or where work-seekers are to work with vulnerable persons |
PART V
Special Situations
23. |
Situations where more than one agency or employment business is involved |
24. |
Situations where work-seekers are provided with travel or required to live away from home |
PART VI
Client Accounts and Charges to Work-seekers
25. |
Client accounts |
26. |
Circumstances in which fees may be charged to work-seekers |
PART VII
Miscellaneous
27. |
Advertisements |
28. |
Confidentiality |
29. |
Records |
30. |
Civil liability |
31. |
Effect of prohibited or unenforceable terms and recoverability of monies |
32. |
Application of the Regulations to work-seekers which are incorporated |
33. |
Electronic or other communications |
SCHEDULES
1. |
Transitional and Saving Provisions |
2. |
Client accounts |
3. |
Occupations in respect of which employment agencies may charge fees to work-seekers |
4. |
Particulars to be included in an agency's or employment business's records relating to work-seekers |
5. |
Particulars to be included in an agency's or employment business's records relating to hirers |
6. |
Particulars to be included in an agency's or employment business's records relating to other agencies or employment businesses |
Whereas a draft of the following Regulations was laid before Parliament in accordance with section 12(5) of the Employment Agencies Act 1973(1) and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament;
Now, therefore, the Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on her by sections 5(1), 6(1) and 12(3) of the Employment Agencies Act 1973(2) and having consulted such bodies as appear to her to be representative of the interests concerned, hereby makes the following Regulations:
PART I
GENERAL AND INTERPRETATION
Citation and commencement
1. - (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.
(2) With the exception of regulations 26(7) and 32, the Regulations shall come into force on 6th April 2004.
(3) Regulations 26(7) and 32 shall come into force on 6th July 2004.
Interpretation
2. In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires -
"the Act" means the Employment Agencies Act 1973;
"advertisement" includes every form of advertising by whatever means;
"agency" means an employment agency as defined in section 13(1) and (2) of the Act(3) and includes a person carrying on an agency, and in the case of a person who carries on both an agency and an employment business means such a person in his capacity in carrying on the agency;
"business day" means a day other than a Saturday or a Sunday, Christmas Day or Good Friday, or a day which is a bank holiday under or by virtue of the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971(4) in that part of Great Britain;
"company" includes any body corporate (whether incorporated in Great Britain or elsewhere) and references to directors and other officers of a company and to voting power at any general meeting of a company have effect in the case of a company incorporated outside Great Britain with any necessary modifications;
"employment business" means an employment business as defined in section 13(1) and (3) of the Act and includes a person carrying on an employment business, and in the case of a person who carries on both an employment business and an agency means such a person in his capacity in carrying on the employment business;
"hirer" means a person (including an employment business) to whom an agency or employment business introduces or supplies or holds itself out as being capable of introducing or supplying a work-seeker;
"publication" means any publication whether in paper or electronic form other than a programme service within the meaning of the Broadcasting Act 1990(5);
"work-finding services" means services (whether by the provision of information or otherwise) provided -
(a) by an agency to a person for the purpose of finding that person employment or seeking to find that person employment;(b) by an employment business to an employee of the employment business for the purpose of finding or seeking to find another person, with a view to the employee acting for and under the control of that other person;(c) by an employment business to a person (the "first person") for the purpose of finding or seeking to find another person (the "second person"), with a view to the first person becoming employed by the employment business and acting for and under the control of the second person;"work-seeker" means a person to whom an agency or employment business provides or holds itself out as being capable of providing work-finding services.
The meaning of "connected"
3. - (1) For the purposes of these Regulations a person is connected with -
(a) his spouse or minor child or stepchild;(b) any individual who employs him or is his employee;(c) any person who is in partnership with him;(d) any company of which he is a director or other officer and any company connected with that company;(e) in the case of a company - (i) any person who is a director or other officer of that company;(ii) any subsidiary or holding company, both as defined in section 736 of the Companies Act 1985(6), of that company and any person who is a director or other officer, or an employee of any such subsidiary or holding company;(iii) any company of which the same person or persons have control; and(f) in the case of a trustee of a trust, a beneficiary of the trust, and any person to whom the terms of the trust confer a power that may be exercised for that person's benefit.(2) For the purposes of paragraph (1)(e)(iii) a person is to be taken as having control of a company if -
(a) he or any person with whom he is connected is a director of that company or of another company which has control of it;(b) the directors of that company or another company which has control of it (or any of them) are accustomed to act in accordance with his directions or instructions; or(c) he is entitled to exercise, or control the exercise of, one third or more of the voting power at any general meeting of the company or of another company which has control of it.Transitional and Saving Provisions and Revocation
4. - (1) The transitional and saving provisions in Schedule 1 shall apply.
(2) Subject to the provisions of Schedule 1, the following statutory instruments are hereby revoked -
(a) the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 1976(7);(b) the Employment Agencies Act 1973 (Charging Fees to Workers) Regulations 1976(8); and(c) the Employment Agencies Act 1973 (Charging Fees to Au Pairs) Regulations 1981(9).PART II
GENERAL OBLIGATIONS
Restriction on requiring work-seekers to use additional services
5. Neither an agency nor an employment business may make the provision to a work-seeker of work-finding services conditional upon the work-seeker -
(a) using other services for which the Act does not prohibit the charging of a fee, or(b) hiring or purchasing goods,whether provided by the agency or the employment business or by any person with whom the agency or employment business is connected.
Restriction on detrimental action relating to work-seekers working elsewhere
6. - (1) Neither an agency nor an employment business may (whether by the inclusion of a term in a contract with a relevant work-seeker or otherwise) -
(a) subject or threaten to subject a relevant work-seeker to any detriment on the ground that - (i) the relevant work-seeker has terminated or given notice to terminate any contract between the work-seeker and the agency or employment business, or(ii) in the case of an employment business, the relevant work-seeker has taken up or proposes to take up employment with any other person; or(b) require the relevant work-seeker to notify the agency or the employment business, or any person with whom it is connected, of the identity of any future employer of the relevant work-seeker.(2) For the avoidance of doubt, the following shall not constitute a detriment within the meaning of paragraph (1)(a) -
(a) the loss of any benefits to which the relevant work-seeker might have become entitled had he not terminated the...To continue reading
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