Despite the valiant efforts of judges, doubts persist about the true status of agency workers, says Bruce Gardiner
“There is confusion in the workplace and considerable uncertainty in the law about the status of individuals who obtain work through employment agencies.” So said Lord Justice Mummery at the start of his judgment in Dacas v Brook Street Bureau (UK) Ltd [2004] EWCA Civ 217, [2004] All ER (D) 125 (Mar). It is an important question. Recent Department of Trade and Industry figures suggest there are over 600,000 agency workers. Are such workers employees of the employment agency? Are they employees of the end-user client? Or are they not employees at all, with the result that they lack the legal protection afforded to employees?
Three years and three Court of Appeal cases later (see Dacas, Bunce v Postworth Ltd (t/a Skyblue) [2005] EWCA Civ 490, [2005] IRLR 557, [2005] All ER (D) 38 (May), and Cable & Wireless plc v Muscat [2006] EWCA Civ 220, [2006] All ER (D) 127 (Mar)) many practitioners felt that much of
