“Very few” retailers have reacted to the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) by ending temporary workers’ contracts after 11 weeks, Steven Kirkpatrick, managing director of recruiter Adecco UK, tells Recruiter.

Speaking to Recruiter for the Sector Focus on p14 of the new edition of the magazine, out this week, this puts the industry roughly in line with the recruitment market as a whole, where surveys and analysis reported by Recruiter over the year have either suggested limited effects, or shown that for every person suggesting one consequence, there is another individual suggesting the opposite.

Says Kirkpatrick: “AWR has not caused a huge sector shake up. Historically, many retailers operate a ‘try before you buy’ style strategy with temps anyway, to make sure they are comfortable with the often unsociable hours of retail work before they are taken on as perm.

“With the introduction of AWR, we are actually seeing retailers implement a long-term strategy – very few have adopted a strategy of ending their temps’ contracts 11 weeks after hiring so they don’t qualify for ‘Week 12 Rights’ as we feared they might.”

Grant Morris, managing director of luxury retail recruiter Elite Associates, tells Recruiter that with good preparation, “the reality of it [AWR] is not as scary” as had been feared.

He also comments: “I’m all for protecting temporary workers’ rights, but if people want to temp, they temp for a reason. There are benefits from both sides, so I think six months or maybe a year would have been much more reasonable.”