Leading franchisor, Driver Hire, is helping its franchisees and their customers get to grips with the Agency Workers Regulations ahead of their implementation in October 2011.

 

"Press reports suggest that over a third of employers are unaware of the Agency Workers Regulations and their impact," says Chris Chidley, Driver Hire's chief executive. "My guess is that amongst that third will be a good number of transport operators and other organisations using agency drivers on a regular basis. Because they play such an essential role in the smooth running of many transport operations, before the Regulations are implemented, both agencies and customers will have to ensure that they understand how to apply them."

 

The purpose of the Regulations is to align the basic employment conditions for temporary workers with those of the people they work alongside. These

include: pay and holiday entitlement, access to staff facilities and the opportunity to apply for a full-time job with the hirer.

 

The campaign kicked off with two half day seminars held at Driver Hire's head office. Guest speakers were Ben Digby, a senior policy advisor at the CBI and Ron Drake, a senior employment solicitor at Cobbetts and part-time employment tribunal judge.

 

Driver Hire chief executive Chris Chidley, explained that the purpose of the campaign was to raise awareness of the Regulations, debunk the misinformation surrounding them and create a further opportunity for franchisees to add value to their customer relationships. "One key requirement when the Regulations are implemented in October is the need for both customers and agencies to track and monitor the status of all their agency workers and apply them to the Regulations. Driver Hire's highly sophisticated IT systems mean that we are ideally placed to help them do this."

 

Keely Skelton, an Operations Manager at Stobart plc's Leeds depot, was one of the delegates attending the seminar. She certainly found it's given her plenty to think about: "It's been an eye-opener and I've found it really useful," Keely commented afterwards.