Mr A Hay v ERM Certification & Verification Services Limited (trading as ERM CVS LTD) — 2020

The tribunal found that Mr Hay was an agency worker assigned to the respondent's finance team as an accounts receivable worker from 25 November 2019. It accepted that he was not told about the respondent's intranet, Minerva, or that vacancies were posted there, on the respondent's website or on LinkedIn, and held that this was a breach of regulation 13 of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 because he had not been given the information needed to have the same opportunity as comparable workers to find permanent work with the hirer.

The tribunal also found that Mr Hay did apply for the permanent AR role on Indeed.com on 29 January 2020, but his application was not considered because of an administrative error in the recruitment process. It found that, even if his application had been received, he would not have been appointed because the respondent did not think he was capable of performing the role, and in any event the role was never filled because permanent recruitment was frozen. For the regulation 13 breach, the tribunal awarded two weeks' gross pay, totalling £1,120.

On the detriment claim, the tribunal found that Mr Hay complained on 13 March 2020 that the respondent had breached the AWR, that his complaint was not investigated independently, and that the communications on 17 and 18 March 2020 conveyed that his continued assignment depended on how he conducted himself after raising the allegation. It held that his assignment was ended because he had alleged a breach of the AWR, so the regulation 17 complaint was well founded. The tribunal also found that the assignment would in any event have ended by 15 April 2020, so it assessed loss at three weeks' gross pay, £1,680, making a total compensation award of £2,800 subject to any later injury to feelings award after further representations.