How We Keep Your Agency Workers Compliant

We record qualifications against the worker with the type and the expiry date, not as a single yes or no. This matters most with plant and machinery, where the qualification is specific to the equipment: a counterbalance forklift ticket does not cover a reach truck, and neither covers a VNA truck. A worker who is qualified is not automatically qualified for the machine they are being asked to use.

We track expiry alongside the qualification, so a lapsed ticket surfaces before the shift rather than during an audit. If you need to confirm that a specific worker is qualified for a specific machine on a specific date, that is a record we can produce.

Responsibility is shared, and the split is worth being precise about because both parties are accountable and neither can discharge the other's duty.

Accept is responsible for general safety induction before a worker arrives: health and safety awareness, manual handling, basic PPE, and sector preparation such as GMP and hygiene training where the work requires it. The client is responsible for site-specific induction — the layout, the hazards, the equipment, the emergency procedures and the reporting lines on that particular site. An inspector will ask both parties what they did, and “the agency handled it” is not an answer that survives the question.

Agency workers acquire the right to equal treatment after twelve weeks in the same role with the same hirer under the Agency Workers Regulations 2010. Equal treatment covers pay, working time, rest breaks and holiday entitlement, measured against what a directly recruited employee doing that job would receive.

We track qualifying periods and apply equal treatment when the threshold is reached. The twelve weeks accumulate rather than run continuously, and breaks of less than six weeks do not reset the clock — which is why the calculation belongs in a system rather than on a spreadsheet, and why rotating workers between sites to avoid the threshold does not work as an approach.

Accept operates under UK GDPR as a data controller, with a published privacy policy currently at version 5.0.

Attendance technology creates data protection obligations that a conventional agency relationship does not, and they are worth stating plainly. Clock-in data is held in AcceptPulse. Where facial recognition is used for clock-in, enrolment data is deleted ninety days after a worker's last shift. Clock-in images are retained for fourteen days. Data is encrypted in transmission using TLS, access is controlled by role, and multi-factor authentication is required for administrative access.

Workers can review, update or request deletion of their personal data. If you are procuring a service that involves biometric clock-in on your site, these are the questions your own data protection officer will ask, and they are answered here rather than on request.

Accept maintains a compliance pack covering company details, the GLAA licence, data protection, insurance and pay arrangements. It is kept current rather than assembled when someone asks, which is the practical difference between answering your customer the same day and asking them to wait.

If an audit on your site has found gaps, the order to address them in is right to work first, then role-specific qualifications for anyone operating plant or machinery, then induction records. Ask for current records covering every worker on site rather than a sample — if a supplier can only produce a sample, that is itself the finding.