contract of employment

[karenbrute]

I am currently in dispute with my agency who have taken me from my normal place of work after getting involved in a dispute concerning my son who works for the same agency. After weeks of emails going back and forth with no definate answer as to why i have been offered little or no work i have involved the rmt union. I am payed through an umbrella company which i thought did just that dealt with pay, on requesting a copy of my contract of employment to produce to the union i have received an email stating that the umbrella company are my employer and not the agency. The dispute doesnt involve pay it involves moving me unannounced from my place of work i have worked there for 18 months. Can anyone advise please.

[NotAllThere]

I am not a lawyer. This is just my understanding.

The RMT union are correct. The umbrella have a contract with the agency to supply you. You have an employment contract with the umbrella company. If the contract between the agency and the umbrella company allows the agency to behave like this, then there's nothing you can do. If the contract doesn't, then the umbrella company is the one who must argue on your behalf - but it's all under contract law, not employment law.

By going through the umbrella company, you have no employment rights with the agency. If you were forced to go through an umbrella company, then the agency have successfully rid themselves of any employer obligations to you. You might want to talk to your MP about that.

This site is (primarily) for people who are contractors, in the sense they have chosen to either work through umbrella companies or via their own limited companies, and as such are voluntarily giving up any employment rights. In return for this we mostly get higher rates of pay. From the way you write, I suspect you are not in this category.

Frankly, the standard advice is "this happens, there's nothing you can do, find another role.". If you want to work as a temp and have (some) protection against agency action, then you must make sure you are a PAYE employee of the agency - not fobbed off to an umbrella company.

[SueEllen]

Get the contract of the umbrella company, read and also give it to the RMT to check.

There may be clauses that aren't enforceable due to their unreasonableness which means how the agency has behaved is wrong. These issues will all be legal technicalities which is why you will need the RMT to check.

Also I know from being a permanent employee, employers put clauses in contracts such as suspending workers or moving them if they have a dispute with a worker. This is to avoid the situation escalating while the dispute is being resolved and is completely legal.

Oh and when I was temping if I had issues with one agency I just went and got work from another. I then found after 6 months the old agency was ringing me again as agencies tend to have a high staff turnover.