Joint Employment and the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate
09 July 2024
The Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate (“EASI”) has recently issued a notice regarding joint employment models and their compliance with the Employment Agencies Act 1973 (“the Act”) and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (“the Conduct Regs”).
Whilst the notice is described only as a ‘regulatory point of view’ which should not be taken as legal advice on the joint employment model, it does provide an indication that such a model, if operated correctly, would not be considered to be in breach of the Act or the Conduct Regs.
The notice describes the process to follow in regard to the issue of Key Information Documents (“KID”) where two entities are both regarded as “employers” in the contractual arrangement with the worker. This details that a KID should be issued prior to the provision of a work finding service and a further, revised KID issued once an assignment has been allocated and the joint employment contract offered.
The aim of this is to provide full transparency to the worker in this scenario which is considered to be more complex than a standard agency – umbrella arrangement.
See the notice here.