Cases On The Horizon: Agency Workers

Readers may recall our earlier report on the case of Moran and others v Ideal Cleaning Services Ltd which dealt with the scope of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (the AWR). The question under consideration was the meaning of "temporary" in regulation 3 of the AWR which states that an "agency worker" is a person "supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for an under the supervision and direction of a hirer".

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) considered the issue earlier this year in relation to a group of agency workers who had been engaged by a temporary work agency to work for the client for periods which ranged between 6 and 25 years. They were made redundant and they argued that the AWR provided that they qualified for the same employment rights as if they had been recruited directly by the end user client. The first instance tribunal held that "temporary" meant "not permanent" or "short term".