Agency Staff

[chasingunicorns]

We have been using an agency employee for the last 14 months. We submit a time sheet each week, the agency invoices us monthly and he is paid weekly by the agency. Last week he was not paid by the agency as the time sheet had not been sent to us. We submitted his hours via email. He failed to turn up for work on Monday with no prior notice. This put us to great inconvenience and we had to find another member of staff from another agency at short notice. We decided to keep this person for the rest of the week. Now we are being sent demands for severance payment from the first worker. As far as we are concerned, we owe him nothing. He doesn't work for us but for the agency. Are we missing something?

 

[ethical PR]

What does it say in your contract with the agency?

 

[CreativeSeoCompanyBristol]

This is unforunate situation but again this is also where your contract of engagement comes up to learn the best way forward from here

 

[GaryParsonsUK]

It sounds odd that they'll chase for payment from you. Usually the agency worker will be either employed by the agency or on a contract for services with them.

All of our clients can terminate an agency workers assignment with no notice. We use the model contract from the REC, which evens odd if they're doing anything else.

Sorry I can't help anymore but I'd push the agency to assist you or call the REC (if they're a member) to question it.

 

[ISL Recruitment]

If he's been there for 14 months he's obviously doing his job well.
Good staff can be hard to find and it looks like he was just cheesed off because his wages didn't arrive on time.

Have you thought about offering him a contract or just reaching out the olive branch and returning to the way things were before?

 

[chasingunicorns]

Thank you for your replies. The chap has been sending threatening texts to our other engineers and to us. He has issued various threats. I really don't want to take him on again with that kind of attitude. To be fair, his job wasn't very taxing or complicated, he had free transport and regularly failed to turn up for work with no real reason. As he was a temp, we swallowed this but, once bitten.

 

[ethical PR]

@chasingunicorns - I am surprised you continued to employ him then with this sort of attitude.

Presuming you have paid him whatever is due in terms of your contract with the agency, tell the agency what has happened and ask them to deal with the person they have employed.