Staffing companies facing claims from workers under the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) should co-operate with others in the supply chain to improve their chances of a successful defence, according to Frances Lewis, head of Osborne Clarke’s recruitment sector team.

Lewis urged respondents to co-operate, because failure to do so “weakens the case for the defence, and they can undermine each other, and you can end up in a big old mess. If the defence can talk to each other, you are going to get a quicker and a better result than if you blame each other.”

Lewis said the complex nature of claims made under AWR made co-operation the best approach. “All AWR worker claims will have at least the claimant, the agency and the hirer, and that is a simple case,” said Lewis. But with other parties in the supply chain such as umbrellas companies, and managed service providers, the number of parties in an Employment Tribunal claim could be even greater, she said. 

“Often the claimant doesn’t know who is responsible so they will throw mud until it sticks so it is very difficult to know which bits if any they should be responsible for,” she added.

Staffing companies could also face a whole range of claims “bundled up as one claim” said Lewis – for example a discrimination claim, an AWR claim and a minimum wage claim.

Lewis said she was aware of six claims in total, but the true figure was probably double that.  “It’s not a tidal wave but things are starting to happen.”

• For more on AWR, see ‘Managing agency workers 2012’, a supplement in the August issue of Recruiter.