query about temp contract job in plumbing

darkangel1986

Hi ,

My boyfriend has started a temp contract job in plumbing for a few weeks in a school in Cork city. He is applied for this job via a text he received from a recruitment agency and thankfully, he was successful. He recently found out that while he was getting €480 a week apparently other people receive €600 a week in the same job. He was informed that the recruitment agency is taking a percentage of his wage every week-is this legal??? I have looked at the temp agency act 2012 and it appears it is not or have I interpreted it wrong? Any advice???

scheister

darkangel1986 wrote: »

Hi ,

My boyfriend has started a temp contract job in plumbing for a few weeks in a school in Cork city. He is applied for this job via a text he received from a recruitment agency and thankfully, he was successful. He recently found out that while he was getting €480 a week apparently other people receive €600 a week in the same job. He was informed that the recruitment agency is taking a percentage of his wage every week-is this legal??? I have looked at the temp agency act 2012 and it appears it is not or have I interpreted it wrong? Any advice???

this would not be strange when i was working with an agency the bank paid them €14 per hour and they only paid me €11 per hour the other 3 was seen as they take for temping me out to the bank and looking after the HR side of things

whatnext

darkangel1986 wrote: »

Hi ,

My boyfriend has started a temp contract job in plumbing for a few weeks in a school in Cork city. He is applied for this job via a text he received from a recruitment agency and thankfully, he was successful. He recently found out that while he was getting €480 a week apparently other people receive €600 a week in the same job. He was informed that the recruitment agency is taking a percentage of his wage every week-is this legal??? I have looked at the temp agency act 2012 and it appears it is not or have I interpreted it wrong? Any advice???

There are lots of thing you need to know before you can compare and make a judgement.
Is everyone engaged in the same manner? ie PAYE, Self employed sole trader, Limited Company contractor or otherwise.

Are all parties quoting rates before or after tax.

Are the others engaged via the agency or direct by the company.

If they are all engaged via the agency I can see no issue.

If those on 600/week are engaged directly and you OH is via an agent "there maybe" an AWR breach. Provided they are engaged at the same level and carrying out the same work (amongst other things).

Get all the facts straight before you make any accusations.

Recruitment agencies charge clients a percentage on top of the workers wages. I know is sounds like splitting hairs but its a very different thing legally to charging a worker or making a deduction from their wages.

whatnext

darkangel1986 wrote: »

Hi ,

My boyfriend has started a temp contract job in plumbing for a few weeks in a school in Cork city. He is applied for this job via a text he received from a recruitment agency and thankfully, he was successful. He recently found out that while he was getting €480 a week apparently other people receive €600 a week in the same job. He was informed that the recruitment agency is taking a percentage of his wage every week-is this legal??? I have looked at the temp agency act 2012 and it appears it is not or have I interpreted it wrong? Any advice???

not saying this is the case but the figures stack up as he is PAYE the others are Ltd company contractors or simply cash in hand. If your boyfriend was being engaged correctly the costs are as follows

Worker 480.00
Holiday Pay 41.38
Bank Holiday pay 18.62
Sub Total 540.00
Employers PRSI 58.05

Total Cost 598.05 or say 600

No where in those calculations is there a cut for the agency.

darkangel1986

No, they are receiving €600 after tax and deductions etc. They are all doing the same job. I need to do more investigating, but what I am asking is it right that the agency that pays my OH deduct a percentage from his wage on his temp contract? Another worker on site has said they do but I think need to find out directly from the horse's mouth. He can ring and ask them but I would rather find out first if they can before he enquires about it.

whatnext

darkangel1986 wrote: »

No, they are receiving €600 after tax and deductions etc. They are all doing the same job. I need to do more investigating, but what I am asking is it right that the agency that pays my OH deduct a percentage from his wage on his temp contract? Another worker on site has said they do but I think need to find out directly from the horse's mouth. He can ring and ask them but I would rather find out first if they can before he enquires about it.

Really you can only compare the pay rates before tax as everyones tax circumstances are different. Are the others engaged / contracted directly by the company or through an agency. This could have a huge baring on where you stand.

darkangel1986

others are employed directly from the company. it is €600 after deductions was agreed between them and company. €480 per week for some employed by recruitment agency other receive €540 a week. Again to reiterate the question, is it right for the agency to deduct money from my OH's wages if they are doing so on the temp contract????

NinetyForNone

darkangel1986 wrote: »

others are employed directly from the company. it is €600 after deductions was agreed between them and company. €480 per week for some employed by recruitment agency other receive €540 a week. Again to reiterate the question, is it right for the agency to deduct money from my OH's wages if they are doing so on the temp contract????

Not right but totally legal.

whatnext

darkangel1986 wrote: »

others are employed directly from the company. it is €600 after deductions was agreed between them and company. €480 per week for some employed by recruitment agency other receive €540 a week. Again to reiterate the question, is it right for the agency to deduct money from my OH's wages if they are doing so on the temp contract????

If they agreed to pay 480 and he is getting 480 there is no deduction being made.
If the agreed to pay 600 and are deducting 120 and paying 480 that would be wrong on many levels.

But from what you are saying the way to tackle this is using the Agency Worker Regs see... http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/types_of_employment/agency_workers.html

Eoin

split to its own thread

Stheno

whatnext wrote: »

If they agreed to pay 480 and he is getting 480 there is no deduction being made.
If the agreed to pay 600 and are deducting 120 and paying 480 that would be wrong on many levels.

But from what you are saying the way to tackle this is using the Agency Worker Regs see... http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/employment/types_of_employment/agency_workers.html

Not necessarily the case if the OP is employed as a self employed contractor operating a limited company.

Rules are different for that type of work than for agency workers.

@ OP this is perfectly legal, I've come across it a few times. Basically because the agency are supplying your OHs services, they charge the company x and pay him x - a %

As those employed directly by the company don't have an agency involved, they don't have to suffer the cut.

In one case I came across the agency took over 30% as their cut.

Mrs OBumble

NinetyForNone wrote: »

Not right but totally legal.

I'd say it's both right and legal.

The agency is his employer: they need to pay holiday pay, employer PRSI, cover the cost of recruiting him etc. So of course they deduct - not from his wage - but from the amount that they bill the company, which based on the figures done above will be well above E600.

In general, you can assume that the recruiter's margin is around 30%. More in some places, less in others.


OP, to know whether there is an issue with the company paying less for agency workers than they pay their permanent staff doing the same job, you need to check whether it really is the same job, and whether they have the same qualifications and experience and levels of responsibility on-site. Sometimes situations that look like everyone doing the same job, simply aren't.

Paul_Mc1988

From working on site for many years i can tell you this is a normal occurrence. The workers you spouse is talking about are direct employees of the company and receive the unionized rate which usually equates to €600 after tax maybe a bit more depending on extra tax credits they may be eligible for.

Your spouse is working for an agency and has agreed to a rate of pay offered to him by said agency and as they are not a Plumbing company can agree pay rates lower that the unionized pay rate. Hope this clears up any questions you may have.