The managing director of a Wakefield-based recruiter says that some small employers are refusing to provide pay details of their permanent employees, as required under the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR).

Under AWR, hirers are obliged to provide recruitment agencies with the pay details of permanent staff. This is to ensure that agency workers receive equal pay with permanent staff at the end of the 12-week qualifying period.

Anton Muller, MD of logistics engineering and commercial recruiter Active Solutions, told Recruiter: “A lot of smaller logistics companies are greeting us with an expletive, followed by ’You must be joking, I am not giving you this information about what I am paying my people’. This is occurring across a number of sectors and industries.”

However, Carmen Watson, MD at Pertemps Recruitment Partnership, told Recruiter it was taking smaller companies “a little more time” to provide the information.

An agency will have a defence at an Employment Tribunal if it took “reasonable steps” to get this information from the hirer.