The number of complaints about employment agencies rose to 1,261 in the 2017/2018 year, up 52% from the previous year’s 828, according to the annual report from the Employment Agencies Standards Inspectorate released last week. The agency said it believes the increase is the result of greater awareness of workers’ rights.

Nearly half the complains arrived between December 2017 and March 2018.

In a response, Neil Carberry, CEO of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation told People Management the complains represented only a small portion of recruitment industry activity that include placing a million in work, and that it is good news that people are bringing their concerns forward.

The inspectorate’s report also noted the hospitality and healthcare sectors saw the most worker complaints, totalling nearly 25% of complaints received. The largest volume of complaints were about failure of an agency to pay a worker for all hours worked.

Nearly £150,000 was recovered for workers during the year, according to the report.

During the year, 145 site visits of businesses took place and 636 infringements were found. The majority of the infringements were related to noncompliance with the required content of the terms that were issued to temporary workers or hirer, or with the information required to be collected and passed on to the worker or hirer.

Cases investigated for possible prosecution involve:

• Employment businesses not carrying proper checks on HGV drivers before supplying them to hirers.
• Employment businesses withholding the payment of wages to its temporary workers.
• Entertainment/model agencies failing to pass money to work-seekers that they have received on behalf of those work-seekers.
• Model agencies providing photographic services to work-seekers for a fee but not providing a cooling off period before taking the fee.

Currently, there are 11 people who are prohibited from running or being concerned with the running of an employment agency.