Employment agency legalities

[Addy123]

Can anyone (especailly the legal bods on here) give me an idea of what the law is regarding payment by an employment agency in terms of timescales please?

For instance, if you carry out some work on behalf of an employment agency, what legal time limit i in place for you to receive payment from them?

[Nini74]

as in work as an employee or work you did for them? is there a contract? not really a legally defined time limit as far as I'm aware but i'd have to double check - how long ago was the work done and did they tell you when you should be paid for it?

[buildersmate]

When you work for an agency (who contract you to a third-party), you are an employee of that agency. So you should have had some written information to give you the key particulars of your employment with them. That defines the periods by which you are paid - but 'two weeks in arrears' or 'monthly' are quite common arrangements.

[Addy123]

Thanks buildersmate, that's exactly what I wanted! I am saying our contract is with the agent, they are saying our contract is with the venue and I am asking for them to stipulate a time limit regarding when we get paid (i.e. within a maximum 30 days of performance) and they are saying the payment will be whenever they get paid by the venue.......and are intimating 60 days. We simply want them to be a little more forthcoming.

It's a big fee (£3,000)and according to their T&C's they say that they require 50% when the venue books and the balance 4 weeks in advance, so we feel 30 days AFTER performance is fair as they will have had the money from the venue for 2 months by then

[buildersmate]

They seem to be trying to treat you as self-employed and you are not. They are paying the employer's NI and your employee's NI and tax through PAYE, I assume (they ought to be doing this).
Their cashflow is their problem.

[dzug2]

Is this an Employment Agency? Sounds more like a booking agency from your description

In either case I don't think there's a specific legal requirement

[EDDIE51]

I work for an employment agency , temporary work is payed weekly the Friday after the week you worked, permanent work is payed monthly in arrears. The exact terms depend on each agency and are stated on your contract.

[EDDIE51]

I have reread this and it does not look as though you are working for the employment agency , it looks as though you have simply been recruited by an agency to do a specific job for a 3rd party. You need to find out exactly what the agency who booked you is , an employment agency or a booking agency there is an important diffrence.

[Addy123]

You are right it is a booking agency and they are being very cagey regarding payment times etc.

When I have queried this with them they have e-mailed back stating "For the purposes of this booking we are acting as an employment agency"

They were saying that because we had queried stuff on the original contract (commission at 17.5% when we had verbally agreed 15%) that they would need to go back to the venue and tell them.

I pointed out that our contract was with them and there was no need to tell the venue that we were disputing their commission.

Now they have come back stating our contract is with the venue and they are simply acting as an employment agency?

I am aware that there are differences (but happy for anyone else to outline more to me), but just want to make sure we do everything to protect ourselves.

We won't be doing any more for this guy once these gigs are out the way as he is so obviously shady

[EDDIE51]

Shady is the right word , the agency is trying to have it both ways.
If they are acting as an employment agency ( and they must be registered as such) your contract is with them as an employment agency. Otherwise it is with the venue. You need to get this sorted , the whole thing seems 'underhand' at the moment no proper contract at all ! you need to urgently contact the organiser and get a proper contract as to how much you are being payed and when plus the job description .
I can see this ending with you not being payed as the 2 sides argue as to you should pay you with no one willing to foot the bill.
Jut to recap, an employment agency MUST be registered and if you work for them no matter where the agency pays you .

[Addy123]

Thanks Eddie, that really puts my mind at rest.

i have researched employment agencies and asked them to provide a principal statement which must cintain certin details including remuneration and when we will be paid.

I think we will lose the gigs to be honest (which is a shame as it's about £5K in total), as they obviously don't like people questioning things and pointing out unprofessional practices...in their last e-mail they even said "We have never had a band asking all these questions before and find it highly unproffessionall that you are questioning ARE contracts!"

I kid you not :-)

[buildersmate]

Good answers from Eddie who has picked up where I (and others) left off.
With the additional info you supplied I agree that they are merely a booking agency. The very fact there are several of you (a band) also confirms this. If they were an employment agency (which they are not) they would have to be employing you each as INDIVIDUALS - an organisation cannot offer an employment contract to a collection/group of people.

So your band (as an entity, a group) has a commercial contract, which could either be with the venue or the agency to provide services in return for a sum of money. I suspect the agency are saying the contract is with them (not the venue) though you'd be probably more reliably paid if the contract could be set up with the venue and you had a separate contract agreeing to apy a percentage of revenue back to the agency.

The answer to your original question is now 'as defined in the contract' - many businesses are having to accept payment three months following invoice.

You need to see proper contract terms (such as 30 days net from date of you invoicing them), as well as a description of what 'service' you will provide.

[buildersmate]

PS - don't continue going down the line of 'Written Statement of Employment Particulars' with them - which I think is what you are referring to above. It is irrelevant because you are not employed by them.

[Addy123]

Thaks Buildersmate...everyone is confirming my suspicions to be honest. When we queried something,they (agents) stated in an e-mail that our contract is with the venue and not them and i disagree.
Their latest e-mail they have sent hasconfirmed two out of three gigs but they are now saying that the larger gig (for a major hotel on NYE), has yet to be confirmed by the venue...and yet they have issued us with a contract for it two months ago!
I think we are going to source another NYE gig and tell him we're not available for his gig. We haven't signed the contracts for that one yet (and now they are claiming it isn't confirmed by the venue we won't until they clarify). The other option is that we are actually playing two (private direct) gigs at the same venue as the NYE gig later this month. I'm tempted to take along the contract he has issued and ask the venue manager for clarification as it's all getting so confusing ;-)