Other compliance issues
Other compliance issues
Contents
This section deals with issues that, while not restricted to the area of 'Employment', nevertheless affect employers and their employees.
Data protection
As an employer, you'll receive personal information from staff and applicants. All personal information that you receive is subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018. In particular, it must be processed fairly, lawfully and transparently.
The Bribery Act 2010
The Bribery Act 2010 makes it a criminal offence for a person to give, offer or promise a bribe. It also states that employers can be criminally liable if their employees have committed bribery unless the employer can prove that it had 'adequate procedures' in place to prevent bribery from occurring. Commercial organisations face unlimited fines for non-compliance, whilst the individuals running them run the risk of both unlimited fines and up to 10 years' imprisonment.
The Agency Workers Regulations
The Agency Workers Regulations affect all organisations that supply or hire temporary agency workers (commonly referred to as 'temps') who are under the 'direction and supervision' of a hirer.
The regulations give temporary agency workers rights to:
- Access or use a hirer's collective facilities and amenities, and access to information relating to job vacancies at the hirer, from the start of the assignment ('day one rights')
- The same basic terms and conditions of employment (e.g. pay and working time) that they would have received had they been recruited directly rather than through an agency, after completing 12 weeks' qualifying service ('equal treatment rights')