Fourteen weeks into a placement at a distribution centre outside Coventry — same depot, same run, same start time as the permanent Class 1 drivers — before anyone from the agency mentioned the Agency Workers Regulations. Took a conversation with a mate who'd been through the same thing at a different yard for me to find out that after 12 qualifying weeks, I was entitled to the same basic pay rates as the comparators doing the same job.
The hirer knew. The agency probably knew. Neither of them told me. And because I didn't know what I was entitled to, I didn't ask. That's how it works when nobody mentions it.
What the Agency Workers Regulations actually are
The Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (SI 2010/93) implement the EU Agency Workers Directive in UK law. They apply to agency workers — people supplied by a temporary work agency to work temporarily for a hirer. If you're driving on agency, supplied to an operator or distribution centre via an employment or driving agency, you're almost certainly covered.
The regulations give you two sets of rights: things you get from day one, and things you get after 12 qualifying weeks in the same role with the same hirer. The day-one rights don't get much attention. The 12-week rights are where the money is.
Day-one rights
From the first day of your assignment, the hirer must give you access to collective facilities and amenities on the same basis as comparable employees. Regulation 12 is the relevant provision. In practice, for HGV drivers, that means: if the permanent drivers have access to a canteen, you have access to the canteen. If they use a locker room, you use the locker room. If there's a company bus between the staff car park and the gatehouse, you get on it.
It also means you should have access to information about internal job vacancies on the same basis as directly employed staff. If the hirer is advertising a permanent Class 1 role internally, they should be sharing that with you too.
In practice, facilities access is often fine — most sites don't bother distinguishing between agency and permanent drivers for the canteen. The vacancy information obligation is more often overlooked. Worth knowing about, even if it's not where most drivers focus their attention.
The 12-week qualifying period
After 12 qualifying weeks in the same role with the same hirer, you become entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as a comparable directly recruited employee. Regulation 5 covers this. 'Basic working and employment conditions' include pay, working time, rest breaks, and annual leave.
For most HGV drivers, this means: once you've completed 12 qualifying weeks, your basic pay rate should match what a comparable permanent driver doing the same job would receive if they'd been recruited directly rather than via the agency. If the permanent drivers are on £15.50 per hour basic and you're on £14.00, that gap should close at week 12.
What counts as a 'qualifying week': any week during the whole or part of which you work in the assignment. Partial weeks count as full weeks. So if you start on a Wednesday and work two days, that's week one.
The 'same role with the same hirer' condition
Both conditions have to be met. Same role and same hirer. If you move from one client depot to another between assignments, the clock may reset. If your role changes substantially — from Class 1 trunking to Class 2 multi-drop, for instance — the clock may reset. If you stay at the same site doing substantially the same work, the clock continues.
The regulation also specifies when a break doesn't reset the clock. Breaks of up to six weeks for any reason preserve continuity. Longer breaks can also be non-resetting in specific circumstances: sickness or injury (up to 28 weeks with medical evidence), pregnancy and maternity, jury service, statutory or contractual leave. Outside those categories, a break of more than six weeks resets the 12-week count.
Agencies who manage their roster carefully sometimes structure placements to avoid the qualifying period triggering — short gaps between placements, moves between different hirers, subtle role redefinitions. Whether this is lawful in any specific case depends on the facts, but if you're being cycled around suspiciously close to the 12-week mark, that's worth noting.
The 'Swedish derogation' and why it was abolished
When the AWR was originally implemented, there was a mechanism called the 'Swedish derogation' that allowed agencies to opt workers out of the pay element of Regulation 5 by offering a 'contract of employment' with a pay-between-assignments guarantee. A lot of agencies used this to keep agency workers permanently on agency rates regardless of how long they'd been at a site.
That loophole was closed in April 2020. Swedish derogation contracts made before that date ceased to have effect. If you signed something before 2020 that looked like a permanent employment contract with your agency and included clauses about pay between assignments, and you're still being paid below the comparable rate, it's worth getting that looked at. The derogation no longer works.
What 'comparable employee' means — and when there isn't one
The equal treatment entitlement is based on comparison with a 'comparable employee' — a directly recruited worker doing the same or broadly similar work at the same or different establishment of the hirer. If the hirer uses no directly employed drivers at all (entirely agency-staffed), the comparison becomes more difficult and the regulation requires a hypothetical assessment of what a direct employee would receive.
This is where small transport operators and owner-managed fleets sometimes argue they don't have a comparator. That argument is harder to sustain at large distribution centres with mixed direct and agency staffing. At sites where the permanent and agency drivers literally work side by side on the same schedules, the comparable employee question isn't complicated.
How to make the entitlement work in practice
Week 12 doesn't trigger automatically. You need to know when you hit it and raise it. The agency isn't obliged to proactively adjust your rate without a request — though they're obliged to comply once you raise it correctly.
The process: identify when you hit 12 qualifying weeks, establish who the comparable employee is (or ask the agency what the comparable direct-hire rate is at the hirer), and make a written request. If the agency disputes your entitlement or claims you haven't hit the qualifying period, ask them to explain in writing why not. An Employment Tribunal claim is the enforcement route if it's not resolved — ACAS early conciliation first.
In practice, most agencies comply without a fight once you know the rules and make a clear request. The ones who don't are usually hoping you don't push it.
Keep your own record of when you started at each site, how many weeks you've worked, and any gaps. Don't rely on the agency's records alone. And if you're a transport manager running a mixed direct/agency workforce, make sure your agency suppliers are AWR-compliant — liability for non-compliance can flow to the hirer as well as the agency if the hirer is involved in causing or contributing to the breach.
If you're managing driver availability across agency and direct workers, ShiftOwt tracks shift history by worker so you've got an accurate record of weeks on site — £5.99/mo for drivers, fleet pricing on request.