A former director of an employment agency has been ordered to pay wages and expenses totalling £5,145 at a hearing at Bristol Magistrates’ Court yesterday following a government prosecution where he was also banned from being a director for five years.

The prosecution comes after an investigation by the Employment Agency Standards (EAS) Inspectorate, a government body that enforces rights on behalf of agency workers.

National Recruitment Limited, trading as Cotterell and Gifford, withheld wages to two workers for work they did in December 2015 and February 2016.

The director, named as Nicholas Brown, was also guilty of failing to provide the right information to his workers when they started their jobs.

The Insolvency Service brought charges against Nicholas Brown on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The former director of Cotterell and Gifford employment agency pleaded guilty to four charges including withholding wages and failing to give information to workers.

It is a criminal offence for an employment business to withhold from a work-seeker any payment due to that work-seeker for work that they have carried out while supplied to a hirer by the employment business.

Kelly Tolhurst, Small Business Minister, commented, “Workers deserve to be paid for the work they do. We take complaints from workers seriously and will take action against employers that willfully ignores the law and exploits workers.”

Tolhurst added, “We’re going further to enhance and protect the rights of all workers. In our Good Work plan we have set out new plans to make agency workers more aware of their rights and give them the right to request a more predictable contract.

Separately, yesterday the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy published its annual report on the performance and achievements of the Employment Agency Standards Inspectorate.

Yesterday’s report examined the government’s Good Work plan, which was published this year as a response to last year’s Taylor Review.

The report specifically highlighted from the review: “The Employment Agency Standards do a good job of protecting agency workers…but recognised that more should be done to further advance the protections to agency workers.”

In response to the review, the government said it would introduce a key facts page and has consulted on what should be included in such a document to ensure agency workers make informed decisions about their contractual relationship with an employment business.

The government has also committed to the expansion of the concern of EAS to cover the activity of umbrella companies and consulted on how this could be achieved.

Furthermore, the government is also considering the evidence regarding the effectiveness of ‘Pay Between Assignments’ (PBA) contracts otherwise known as the ‘Swedish Derogation’ and whether EAS’s remit should be extended to enforce the Agency Worker Regulations.

Among other highlights in its report published yesterday include data that shows the largest volume of complaints made to EAS this year were about failure of the employment business/agency to pay a worker (for all hours worked).

For the full annual report, click here.