The murky world of Agency umbrellas
August 24, 2011 in Business Expenses, Contractor News, Industry comment, Recruiter News
It’s been a while since the last post and high time I wrote about the “grey market”. No, not some dodgy Apple kit, in this context it relates to a number of “Umbrella Companies” that are actually owned by recruitment businesses but pretend they aren’t.
Some are relatively overt about it and exist to perhaps serve their own contractor base and/or use group structures “imaginatively”. Others are far less so of course and also have a history of offering very high referral fees to build contractor volumes. Why would a recruitment business send it’s contractors to a potential competitor related business? I’m not saying that there any data protection breaches but is it best practice? I also believe that clearly masking the relationship tells you something, why hide something if it’s a genuine stand alone business? It is difficult to tell at times and any decent Agency would want to look at group structures and associated companies as part of preferred supplier due diligence. I have seen Umbrella operations bring down related Agencies and vice versa. This happens as a result of one simple fact, it’s not a core focus for the Recruitment business and is a tad harder than you might imagine.
Here at good old Parasol we are quite proud of our independence and I really don’t mind competition, it keeps you sharp. I do mind a lack of transparency and practices in an industry that needs to remain friendly with our legislators. Surely we should all play to strengths and if you are an Agency boss thinking of entering this “easy” Umbrella life then give me a shout, happy to explain how and why you should to do it properly.
by Rob Crossland
Stock up with tinned peaches and powdered eggs!
September 29, 2011 in AWR, Contractor News, Freelancing, Industry comment, Life, Recruiter News
It’s almost the 1st October and the end of the world is nigh! I have already sent the wife down to Morrisons to clear the shelves of tinned peaches and soup.
For those of you who have been blissfully unaware (e.g. not in recruitment or in the service industry that supports it) then 1st October sees the formal start of the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) (and you can go here if you need the basics). In very simple terms it means a clock has started ticking, not as some might think, as precursor to doomsday but to the 12 weeks hence (24th of December!) where a vulnerable agency worker can potentially receive equal pay and conditions of a full time counterpart (if one exists). I may sound a bit cynical but the amount of work that has gone into preparing for this has been quite substantial and for the vast majority of Parasol and Clearsky users it won’t make any difference, it will be business as usual. As a very sensible and safe business we were already doing 90% of what the regulations require so most of our work has been in trying to educate and inform in a market which has very interesting views.
So the boring message is that it’s very much carry on as normal at Parasol House and Clearsky towers. We have shiny new payslips for Parasol employees and some changes in terminology but for contractors it won’t be much different. For Agencies, it’s just as dull, were open for business, a model of operation for all those interesting views and primarily a nil cost, no hassle approach to the legislation.
I suspect I will have to write some more as the dust settles in October and the first potential claims emerge (probably in Union backed environments) after December but in the meantime I shall put the peaches in the garage next to the peas that we bought in December 1999.
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