Following last year’s proposal on changes to the existing Conduct Regulations, and subsequent parliamentary review, the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses (Amendment) Regulations 2016 have now been published. 

The new regulations will come into force on the 8th of May 2016. Commenting on the on the reforms, Samantha Hurley, Operations Director at APSCo said: “While we would have welcomed a complete overhaul of the current regulations – as was discussed during the previous administration – generally speaking, these changes are unlikely to have any great impact on our members’ operations.

The Conduct Regulations are designed to improve the effectiveness of the enforcement of employment rights to protect vulnerable workers from exploitation. These are focused on protecting lower skilled, lower paid workers and so are unlikely to affect APSCo members who operate in professional labour market sectors.

The biggest disappointment will be the fact that there is still no more clarity or simplification of the overly complicated rules around opting out – and also the restrictions on charging clients (when they take contractors) also known as the 8/14 week rule, which remain incomprehensible to most people.”