← Back to the toolbox

TERMS OF BUSINESS WITH THE CLIENT

Signed by the client before the first CV · Regulations 10, 12, 17 and 18, Conduct Regulations 2003; Agency Workers Regulations 2010; Equality Act 2010 section 40A

For the supply of temporary workers and for permanent introductions.

1. What the words mean

• Client: the company or person to whom a temporary worker is supplied or a candidate introduced.
• Temporary worker: an individual supplied by us to work under the client's supervision and direction.
• Candidate: a person we introduce for permanent or fixed term employment.
• Introduction: giving the client a candidate's CV or name, or arranging an interview, whichever happens first.
• Engagement: employing or using a candidate or temporary worker, directly or indirectly, including through another agency or as a contractor.

2. Accepting these terms

By asking us for a candidate or a worker, interviewing anybody we introduce, or engaging anybody we supply, the client accepts these terms in full. Signing below is preferred, and we will not send a CV without a signed copy.

3. Supplying temporary workers

3.1 We supply workers on the terms of the relevant assignment confirmation.

3.2 The client must give us accurate information about the role, the site, the hours, the skills, qualifications or tickets required, and any risk to health and safety and what is being done about it, before the worker starts.

3.3 The client is responsible for day to day supervision, direction and control of the worker, for their health and safety on site, for the induction, and for the working conditions.

3.4 The client must tell us at once if a worker does not arrive, leaves, is injured, or is asked to do something different from the role we agreed.

4. Charges for temporary workers

4.1 The client pays the charge rate in the assignment confirmation. It includes the worker's pay, employer's National Insurance, holiday accrual, pension contributions where they apply, and our margin. VAT is not currently charged and will be added once we are registered.

4.2 Invoices are payable within 14 days of the invoice date unless we agree otherwise in writing.

4.3 Late payment carries statutory interest and fixed recovery costs under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998: 8 per cent above the Bank of England base rate, plus fixed compensation of £40, £70 or £100 depending on the size of the debt, plus our reasonable costs of recovering it. We rely on the statutory rate rather than agreeing a lower one, because a contractual rate that is not a substantial remedy can be set aside and we would rather the figure was certain for both of us. We would always rather send a reminder than an invoice for interest.

4.4 We may suspend supply on written notice while an invoice is overdue. Suspension does not reduce anything already owed.

5. Temporary to permanent, and transfer fees

5.1 The three events a fee can depend on. A transfer fee may become payable if, inside the relevant period in 5.2, a temporary worker we supplied to the client: (a) is engaged by the client, in any capacity, directly or through anybody else; (b) is engaged by somebody else the client introduced them to; or (c) works for the client having been supplied by a different agency. Those are the three events regulation 10(4) of the Conduct Regulations allows a charge to be made contingent on, and we do not ask for a fourth. Outside the relevant period no transfer fee is due on any of them.

5.2 The relevant period is two clocks, and the one that ends LATER is the one that counts. Clock A: 8 weeks starting the day after the worker last worked for the client through us. Clock B: 14 weeks starting the first day the worker worked for the client through us. For clock B, ignore any supply that came before a gap of more than 42 days in which the worker did not work for the client through us at all: a worker who comes back after a long break starts clock B again on the day they return. That is regulation 10(6), and it cuts both ways. On a worker who has been in and out for a year it is in our favour; on a client we have supplied since the beginning it is in theirs. It is here because it is the law either way, and a client should not have to learn it from a solicitor.

5.3 Instead of paying a transfer fee, the client may choose an extended period of hire of 10 weeks on terms no less favourable than those already agreed, at the end of which the worker transfers with nothing further to pay. The client must tell us which it prefers before the engagement begins. We will remind the client of this choice in writing whenever a transfer fee might arise, because the choice is the client's and not ours. Terms that do not offer this choice are unenforceable, which is why it is offered rather than mentioned.

5.4 If we do not supply the worker for the whole of that extended hire period, the transfer fee clause is unenforceable against the client, unless we are in no way at fault. Regulation 10(3). Put plainly: if the client elects extended hire and we then cannot keep the worker on site, we do not get to fall back on charging the fee. We have written that against ourselves because it is the law whether or not it appears in this document, and a clause that only states the parts in our favour is not worth reading.

5.5 Where a transfer fee is payable it is 15 per cent of the worker's first year gross remuneration in the new role, or the equivalent annualised figure for hourly paid work, with a minimum of £2,500. VAT is not currently charged and will be added once we are registered.

6. Permanent introductions

6.1 A fee of 18 per cent of the candidate's first year gross basic salary is payable when the engagement starts. Where the package includes a guaranteed bonus, a car or a car allowance, the fee is calculated on the total first year package if that is higher. VAT is not currently charged and will be added once we are registered.

6.2 The client must tell us in writing within seven days of engaging anybody we introduced, with the start date and the agreed remuneration. Our invoice follows.

6.3 An introduction lasts 12 months. If the client engages the candidate within that period, for any role, or a company in the same group does, the fee is payable.

6.4 Rebate. If the candidate leaves within the first eight weeks, other than by redundancy, a change to the role by the client, the client's breach, or the client failing to pay the candidate what was agreed, we refund: 75 per cent in weeks 1 to 2, 50 per cent in weeks 3 to 4, 25 per cent in weeks 5 to 8. The client must tell us in writing within 7 days of the departure and the invoice must have been paid in full and on time. No rebate is due if the candidate is re-engaged by the client within 12 months. At the client's option the rebate may be taken as a credit against the next placement instead of a refund.

7. Right to work and suitability

7.1 We carry out a right to work check on every temporary worker before supply, in line with Home Office guidance, and we keep the evidence. We will show the client the record on request.

7.2 Once the worker is under the client's control, ongoing right to work duties are the client's, and so are they entirely for anybody the client engages permanently.

7.3 We take reasonable steps to confirm a worker is suitable on the information we are given, including references where the role requires them. We do not warrant suitability beyond that, and the client remains responsible for its own decision to engage anybody.

8. Candidate data

8.1 Each of us is an independent controller of our own copy of a candidate's data. Neither is the other's processor and neither can bind the other.

8.2 The client will: (a) use candidate data only to consider that person for the role they were introduced for; (b) not pass it to anybody outside the client's own organisation, including group companies and the client's own customers, without our written agreement and the candidate's; (c) delete it within three months if there is no engagement, unless the client has its own lawful basis to keep it and has told the candidate; (d) not add it to any marketing list or database; and (e) tell us within 48 hours of any loss, exposure or unauthorised access affecting candidate data we supplied, so that we can meet our own duties to the candidate and to the Information Commissioner.

8.3 We do not sell candidate data to anybody, at any price. No advertiser can search for candidates on our website.

9. What we do not do

9.1 We never charge a work-seeker a fee for finding them work. Section 6, Employment Agencies Act 1973.

9.2 We do not use umbrella companies. Temporary workers are paid by us under PAYE.

9.3 We will not advertise a role for the client without the client's written authority, as regulation 27 requires.

10. Liability

10.1 Our total liability in connection with these terms is limited to the fees paid by the client in the 12 months before the claim.

10.2 The client indemnifies us against claims and costs arising from the acts or omissions of a temporary worker while under the client's supervision and control, except so far as caused by our own negligence.

10.3 Nothing here limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

10.4 We hold professional indemnity, public liability and, once we employ anybody, employer's liability insurance. Certificates on request.

11. What the client tells us before we send anybody

11.1 Before we supply a worker the client tells us, in writing: the type of work, where it is and the hours, the start date and how long it is expected to last, any experience, training, qualifications or authorisation the law or the client requires the worker to have, and any risks to health or safety known to the client and what has been done about them. This is what regulation 18 of the Conduct Regulations requires of us, and we cannot meet it without the client.

11.2 If the role requires a qualification by law, or involves working with children or vulnerable adults, the client tells us before the first CV, not after the offer.

11.3 If any of it changes, the client tells us. A worker sent to do one job and asked to do another is how people get hurt, and it is the client's risk assessment that stops it.

12. Timesheets, and what an unsigned one does not do

12.1 At the end of each week the client signs, or approves electronically, a record of the hours the worker actually worked. Approving it confirms the hours; it is not a statement that the client was satisfied with everything, and a complaint about the work is dealt with under clause 13 rather than by refusing to sign.

12.2 If the client does not return a signed timesheet, the client is still liable for the hours worked. We will ask the client to confirm the hours by any reasonable means and the charge stands. A missing signature is an administrative problem, not a discount.

12.3 We pay the worker either way. Regulation 12 of the Conduct Regulations forbids us from withholding a temporary worker's pay because a timesheet has not been signed, or because the client has not paid us. We would not do it in any case, and it is written here so the client understands that a dispute about hours is a dispute between the client and us and never one the worker pays for.

13. Ending an assignment

13.1 The client may end an assignment at any time, for any reason, by telling us. Charges are due for the hours actually worked up to that point and for any notice period agreed in the assignment confirmation.

13.2 If a worker is asked to leave part way through a shift for a reason that is not their conduct, the shift is charged in full. Somebody who turned up, travelled and made themselves available has done what was asked of them.

13.3 If the client is unhappy with a worker at the start of the first shift, tells us inside the window below, and sends them off site, we do not charge for those hours and we will try to replace the worker. That is one chance per worker per client, it is not a trial period, and it does not apply to a worker who has already completed a shift there.

13.4 The window is proportionate to the shift, because four hours of a five hour shift is not a window, it is the shift. For a shift scheduled at more than seven hours: four hours. For a shift of seven hours or less: two hours. Either way the client tells us inside the window and confirms it in writing within 48 hours, so that neither of us is reconstructing a Tuesday morning three weeks later.

13.5 If a worker does not arrive, the client tells us within four hours. Not at the end of the week and not on the timesheet. We cannot replace somebody we do not know is missing, and a no-show we hear about on Friday is a shift nobody could have saved.

13.6 We may end an assignment immediately, without charge to the client for hours not worked, if we believe the worker is at risk, is being asked to break the law, or is being treated in a way we are not prepared to supply into. We will tell the client why.

14. Licensed sectors

14.1 Supplying workers into agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering, and the processing or packaging of food and drink requires a gangmaster's licence. The scheme is enforced by the Fair Work Agency, which took it over from the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority on 7 April 2026. Supplying without one is a criminal offence, and so is using a labour provider who does not hold one.

14.2 We will not supply into those sectors unless we hold a current licence, and we will say plainly that we do not rather than take the work. If a client is unsure whether a role falls inside the licensable sectors, ask us and we will find out before anybody is booked, not afterwards.

15. Agency Workers Regulations 2010

15.1 From the first day, not from week twelve. Two rights start the moment a worker walks on site, and they are the client's to give: access to the collective facilities and amenities the client's own staff use (canteen, transport, car park, creche, vending, rest room), unless there is an objective justification for withholding them; and information about the client's relevant vacancies, in the same way the client's own staff are told. Regulations 12 and 13. The client confirms it will do both.

15.2 After twelve continuous weeks in the same role with the same hirer, equal treatment begins. The qualifying period is in regulation 7 and the right itself is in regulation 5: the same basic terms the worker would have had if the client had recruited them directly. That covers pay, the duration of working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave. It does not cover occupational sick pay, redundancy pay, or most pension arrangements.

15.3 Breaking up an assignment to keep somebody under twelve weeks does not work. Regulation 9 exists for exactly that, and a tribunal can treat the qualifying period as completed anyway and award an additional penalty on top. We will not be part of an arrangement designed to do it, and if we are asked we will say so in writing.

15.4 The client tells us what its own people get, and keeps it accurate. On request, and before week twelve, the client gives us the basic working and employment conditions that would apply had the worker been recruited directly for that role, and tells us without delay if they change. We cannot work this out from the outside. Everything in 15.2 depends on it.

15.5 What that means for the charge rate. Where equal treatment raises what the worker must be paid, the charge rate rises with it. We will put the new figure in writing before week twelve rather than on the invoice afterwards, so the client can decide what to do with a number in front of them.

15.6 Who carries a claim. Regulation 14 puts the liability on whoever was responsible. We are responsible for what we did with the information we had; the client is responsible to the extent a breach was caused by information it failed to give us, gave us late, or gave us wrongly, and it indemnifies us for that part and no more. We are not asking to be covered for our own mistakes.

15.7 If a claim under these Regulations is made or threatened, the client tells us within seven days of hearing about it. We cannot defend something we do not know about, and the first we should hear of an equal treatment claim is not a tribunal letter. The client also gives us the information and the help we need to answer it, at its own cost where the claim arises from something in 15.4 that the client got wrong or did not send.

16. Harassment of our worker on the client's site

16.1 The client is responsible for the conduct of its own people. Our worker stands in the client's building, among the client's staff, usually with nobody from us present. The client will not tolerate harassment, sexual harassment or bullying of a worker we supply, by anybody on its site, and will tell us straight away if it is reported to them rather than to us.

16.2 The client indemnifies us against any claim brought by a worker we supplied arising from harassment or alleged harassment by the client, the end user, or any of their employees, agents or contractors.

16.3 An indemnity is not the point of this clause, and it does not buy our silence. If a report is made and not dealt with, we take our worker off that site and we stop supplying it. We would rather lose the account. Our harassment and bullying policy is published in full and says the same thing where anybody can read it, including the part about what happens when the complaint is about us.

16.4 Section 40A of the Equality Act 2010 requires an employer to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of its employees, and section 124A lets a tribunal increase compensation by up to 25 per cent where it has not. The duty for harassment by third parties was taken out of that Act in Parliament before it passed, so what is written here is ours by choice rather than by compulsion, and we would rather say that plainly than let anybody think a statute is doing the work.

17. Confidentiality, ending, and law

17.1 Each of us keeps the other's commercial information confidential.

17.2 Either party may end these terms on 30 days' written notice. Ending them does not affect fees already incurred, any transfer fee that has become payable, or clause 8.

17.3 These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its courts.

17.4 If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands and the unenforceable part is treated as removed rather than bringing the whole down with it.

17.5 Nobody who is not the client or us has any right to enforce these terms under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999. That does not affect any right a temporary worker has under their own terms with us, or under the Conduct Regulations, and nothing here is intended to reduce either.

17.6 Notices under these terms are given in writing to the address or email each party last gave the other, and take effect when they arrive, or on the next working day if they arrive outside working hours.

HIRINGUK LTD, company number 17414012. Terms of business with the client, version 3.3. Reviewed at least once a year and whenever the law changes. © HIRINGUK LTD. This document is issued under Regulations 10, 12, 17 and 18, Conduct Regulations 2003; Agency Workers Regulations 2010; Equality Act 2010 section 40A.

Print this document Key information document, PAYE Terms of engagement, temporary worker Assignment confirmation Weekly timesheet, driving Holiday: how it builds up, how it is paid, how to book it Appropriate policy document: health and criminal record data Candidate registration and consent Reference request Mobile worker declaration: work you do for anybody else Sickness self certification Driver infringements, and how we handle them Legitimate interests assessment Worker handbook