Employment Rights Act 1996

[F157ZHComplaint to employment tribunal: agency workersE+W+S

(1)An agency worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that the temporary work agency has unreasonably refused to let him or her take time off as required by section 57ZG.

(2)An agency worker may present a complaint to an employment tribunal that the hirer has unreasonably refused to let him or her take time off as required by section 57ZG.

(3)An employment tribunal may not consider a complaint under subsection (1) or (2) unless it is presented—

(a)before the end of the period of three months beginning with the day of the appointment in question, or

(b)within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable in a case where it is satisfied that it was not reasonably practicable for the complaint to be presented before the end of that period of three months.

[F2(4)Section 207B applies for the purposes of subsection (3)(a).]

(5)Where an employment tribunal finds a complaint under subsection (1) or (2) well-founded, it—

(a)must make a declaration to that effect, and

(b)must order the payment to the agency worker of an amount determined in accordance with subsection (7).

(6)Where the tribunal orders that payment under subsection (5) be made by the temporary work agency and the hirer, the proportion of that amount payable by each respondent is to be such as may be found by the tribunal to be just and equitable having regard to the extent of each respondent's responsibility for the infringement to which the complaint relates.

(7)The amount payable to the agency worker is—

where—

a

A is the appropriate hourly rate for the agency worker, and

b

B is the number of working hours for which the agency worker would have been entitled under section 57ZG to be absent if the time off had not been refused.

(8)The appropriate hourly rate, in relation to an agency worker, is the amount of one week's pay divided by the number of normal working hours in a week for that agency worker in accordance with the terms under which the agency worker works temporarily for and under the supervision and direction of the hirer that are in force on the day when the time off would have been taken.

(9)But where the number of normal working hours during the assignment differs from week to week or over a longer period, the amount of one week's pay shall be divided instead by the average number of normal working hours calculated by dividing by twelve the total number of the agency worker's normal working hours during the period of twelve weeks ending with the last complete week before the day on which the time off would have been taken.]