06 March 2025
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has responded to the consultation ‘the application of zero hours contracts measures to agency workers’. This sought views on how the zero-hours contract requirements could be implemented in the agency space, presumably to stop agency work being used to bypass the future rules.
While the full response breaks down the answers provided by the public, trade bodies, employers and legal representatives, it also includes a table of the key proposals and the next steps being taken for a quick overview.
There will be further consultations on the roll out of these plans and how to implement them correctly without being too burdensome on employers and impacted individuals. The response states:
“The Employment Rights Bill, as is common with employment legislation, provides a policy framework, with further detail of how the measures will work in practice implemented via secondary legislation. The Government is committed to working in partnership with businesses, trade unions and other stakeholders to deliver the plan to Make Work Pay and we will consult on the more technical aspects of these measures which will be set out in secondary legislation. Through this engagement the Government will identify how best to achieve the objective of extending rights for agency workers without causing unintended consequences to employment agencies and hirers. In addition to consulting, the Government will develop guidance to assist workers, agencies and hirers with understanding these new rights before they come into force.”
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