Running an employment agency or business

Before starting to find work for work-seekers you must agree the terms that will apply with the work-seeker. These should include:

• a statement that the services provided will be those of an employment business
• the type of work you will find or seek to find for the work-seeker
• whether those work-seekers are or will be employed by you under a contract of service, or apprenticeship, or a contract for services, and the terms of employment that will apply
• an undertaking that you will pay the work-seeker for all work done by the work-seeker regardless of whether or not you are paid by the hirer
• the length of notice which the work-seeker will be required to give and entitled to receive from the employment business in respect of particular assignments with hirers
• either the rate of pay payable to the work-seeker, or the minimum rate of pay which you reasonably expect to achieve for the work-seeker
• details of the intervals at which remuneration will be paid (for example, weekly in arrears etc)
• the amount of holiday and details of payment for holiday that will be given - the majority of work-seekers will be covered by The Working Time (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 and, therefore, will be entitled to statutory holiday pay

Where the work-seeker is a limited company (and not opted out of the regulations) and where annual leave provisions would not apply, you must detail any period of absence that a limited company work-seeker may be entitled to and to be paid for.

If you and the work-seeker agree any changes to the terms, you must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the changes have been agreed, give the work-seeker a new document setting out details of the changes and stating the date that the varied terms take effect.