Opt out / Opt in again

[TheFaQQer]

What extra admin? The entire point of using an agency is that any checks that have to be done on the companies/people they engage for the client is that they do the checks.

This is what clients pay them for.

I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest that the agent is talking bollox.

[psychocandy]

That's the standard PCG advice and is about acting like a business, but its only a really weak pointer either way. And as has been ointed out before the opted in protections for most if us are pretty much illusory.

However the agency dont't get a say n the matter, and their preferences are utterly irrelevant. You opting out saves them some money and risk, that's why they prefer it. It's your call whether or not you want to onblige.

Since you're in the PCG there's a detailed guide in the members' resources section of the main website. Have a read.

Must admit I'm surprised the PCG recommend opting out. Weird.

[malvolio]

Must admit I'm surprised the PCG recommend opting out. Weird.

Not really, since it was they who negotiated the option in the first place.

It wan't actually meant for thee and me, but 40% or so of their members don't use agencies and/or routinely have subbies or employees. They would have been in scope of the Regs, and asked if they could be excluded. Now it's there, PCG's logic is that it is a in-business pointer and every little helps.

Personally I think it's all a waste of time either way, but I always have my opt-out declaration attached to any job applications I send.

[Wanderer]

Not really, since it was they who negotiated the option in the first place.

It wan't actually meant for thee and me, but 40% or so of their members don't use agencies and/or routinely have subbies or employees. They would have been in scope of the Regs, and asked if they could be excluded. Now it's there, PCG's logic is that it is a in-business pointer and every little helps.

The agency regulations apply to businesses operating as an Employment Agency or an Employment Businesses (as defined in law) and the regulations didn't change the definition of either of these terms. Even if 40% of the PCG members did actually employ subbies (which they don't - contractors are just saying that because if they don't then the IR35 bogey man will get them), very very few of them would actually be acting in such a way to make them Employment Agencies or an Employment Businesses. The PCG's contract templates make this point very clear.

I'm sure the PCG meant well but they got the wrong end of the stick thinking that any freelancer who employs a subbie is going to be under the regs which is not true because they don't match the legal definition of an agency. The only people that benefit from the opt out are the agencies and I accept that this will catch a very small minority of contractors who were already operating as employment agencies but hey - an agency is an agency.

The bottom line is that the PCG have scored a massive own goal by negotiating the opt out clause and it's allowed agencies to flout the law shamelessly by getting people like umbrella workers to think they can opt out when they can't. With an opt out in their hand, the agencies can then ignore all the protections of the law.

This abuse of the opt out (for example by getting umbrella workers to opt out) is a scandal that the PCG should investigate but I suppose they are too embarrassed to do it because they were the ones who argued for the opt out to be included in the first place.