Agency workers brought in during AI rollouts (UK)

Organisations bringing in AI often use agency staff: to cover a team while it trains, to label or check data, to run old and new processes side by side, or to fill gaps while roles are redesigned. In Great Britain the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 give these temps some rights from the first day of an assignment and equal basic conditions after twelve weeks. The rights run against the agency, the hirer, or both.

The short answer: from day one, an agency worker is entitled to be treated no less favourably than comparable staff on the hirer's collective facilities and amenities, unless that is objectively justified, and to be told of relevant vacant posts (regs 12 and 13). After twelve continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, they are entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions, such as pay, working time and annual leave, as if the hirer had recruited them directly (regs 5 to 7). Complaints go to an employment tribunal (reg 18).

Who is an agency worker

An agency worker is an individual supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of a hirer, who has a contract of employment, or another contract to perform work or services personally, with the agency (reg 3(1)). Someone genuinely in business on their own account, with the agency or hirer as a client or customer, is not covered (reg 3(2)). Supply through one or more intermediaries does not stop someone being an agency worker (reg 3(5)). For the wider question of employee, worker or self-employed, see worker status.

Day-one rights: facilities and vacancies

During an assignment, an agency worker has the right to be treated no less favourably than a comparable worker in relation to the hirer's collective facilities and amenities, which include in particular canteen or similar facilities, child care facilities and transport services, unless less favourable treatment is justified on objective grounds (reg 12).

The agency worker also has the right to be informed by the hirer of any relevant vacant posts, to give them the same opportunity as a comparable worker to find permanent employment with the hirer. A general announcement in a suitable place in the hirer's establishment is enough (reg 13). If new permanent roles are created around a new system, agency staff on assignment need to be able to see them.

After twelve weeks: equal basic conditions

Once the qualifying period is complete, the agency worker is entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions they would have had for the same job if recruited directly by the hirer at the time the qualifying period began (reg 5(1)). The qualifying period is twelve continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, over one or more assignments; any week in which they work during an assignment, even for part of it, counts (reg 7(1), (2) and (4)). Some breaks do not reset the count (reg 7(5) and (8)). A move to a new role only restarts it if the work is substantively different and the agency has told the worker in writing what the new role involves (reg 7(3)).

The basic conditions are terms relating to pay, the duration of working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave (reg 6(1)). Pay includes fees, bonuses, commission and holiday pay referable to the employment, but excludes items such as occupational sick pay, pensions, redundancy pay, financial participation schemes, and bonuses not directly attributable to the amount or quality of the work done (reg 6(2) and (3)). So a bonus directly attributable to the amount or quality of the work done, such as one the hirer's own staff earn through a performance scoring system, counts as pay; a reward for loyalty or long service does not.

The rule is treated as met where the agency worker is on the same relevant terms as a comparable employee of the hirer, and those terms are the ones ordinarily included in comparable employees' contracts (reg 5(3) and (4)).

Asking for information

An agency worker who has completed the qualifying period and thinks reg 5 has been breached can ask the agency in writing for a statement; the agency must reply within 28 days with information on the hirer's basic conditions and the factors it considered (reg 16(1) and (2)). If no statement arrives within 30 days, they can ask the hirer, which must reply within 28 days (reg 16(3) and (4)). For the day-one rights, the request goes to the hirer, which must give the comparable worker's position and its reasons within 28 days (reg 16(5) and (6)). The information is admissible as evidence (reg 16(8)).

Making a claim

An agency worker can complain to an employment tribunal that the agency or the hirer has infringed these rights (reg 18(2)). The complaint must be presented within six months of the infringement, or the last of a series; for the vacancy right, from the last date others were told of the vacancy. There is an extension for Acas early conciliation, and the tribunal may hear a late claim if it is just and equitable (reg 18(4) to (5)). The six-month period was substituted from 1 October 2026 by the Employment Rights Act 2025 and SI 2026/954, which has transitional provisions, so check which period applies to earlier matters.

The tribunal can make a declaration, order compensation and recommend action (reg 18(8)). Where there is more than one respondent, each pays according to its share of responsibility (reg 18(9)). Compensation for a breach of the equal-conditions right is generally not less than two weeks' pay, though the tribunal can reduce it where that is not just and equitable, and compensation under regs 5, 12 or 13 does not include injury to feelings (reg 18(12), (13) and (15)).

Practical steps

• Hirers: track each agency worker's weeks in role, and give the agency accurate information on the pay, bonus and working time rules that apply to your own staff in the same job, including any set by software. Make sure canteens, transport and internal job postings are open to agency staff on assignment. Count agency workers' hours against the 48-hour and night work limits too.
• Agencies: confirm in writing when a new role is substantively different, and be ready to answer a written request within 28 days.
• Agency workers: keep a record of your start date and weeks worked with each hirer. After twelve weeks, compare your pay, hours and holiday with a directly employed colleague doing similar work, and ask in writing if they differ. If you are on a fixed-term contract with the hirer instead, see fixed-term employees' rights.

For the rules agencies must follow on fees, terms and checks before a placement, see recruitment agency rules, and for the licence needed to supply workers to farms and food processing, see gangmaster licensing. For who must carry out immigration checks on people supplied through agencies and contract chains, see right to work checks. On discrimination by a hirer's tools, see the hirer's equality duties to agency staff. This page is general information on the law in Great Britain as at 1 November 2026, not legal advice.