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Hiring from staffing agencies has become an established part of the toolbox for many managers. The need for flexibility is real, but so are the regulations. A persistent misconception is that agency workers can legally be paid «slightly lower» than permanent employees. Under section 14-12 a-c of the Working Environment Act, the starting point is the opposite: If the company chooses to hire from a staffing agency, it comes with a financial responsibility and a principle of equal treatment.
When do the rules on equal treatment apply and what does it mean?
The rules on equal treatment apply when the company hires employees from a staffing agency, and the hired employee works under the management and control of the staffing agency, typically alongside its own employees. In other words, the decisive factor is not what the staffing agency calls the agreement, but how the work is actually organised in practice. In such cases, the hiring rules apply, regardless of industry, and regardless of whether the hiring is short-term or part of a more stable staffing model.
The core of the principle of equal treatment is that the agency worker must, as a minimum, have the same basic pay and working conditions as an equivalent permanent employee of the hirer. In practice, this means that wages, supplements, working hours, overtime pay, holidays and days off, as well as remuneration on red days, must reflect the conditions for comparable positions in the company. In addition, the agency worker must, as a general rule, have access to shared benefits and welfare schemes at the workplace, such as a canteen or other employee benefits, on an equal footing with their own employees.
The company's duty of disclosure
Although it is the staffing agency that is formally responsible for fulfilling the equal treatment requirement, in practice this is impossible without good information from the hirer. According to Section 14-12 b of the Working Environment Act, when hiring an employee, the hirer must provide the staffing agency with the information necessary for the staffing agency to fulfil the equal treatment requirement.
Hirer's joint and several liability
A key, but often underestimated, point is the joint and several liability under section 14-12 c of the Working Environment Act. Even if the staffing agency is the formal employer, the agency worker can in many cases make a claim directly against the hiring company if correct wages, holiday pay or other remuneration has not been paid in accordance with the equal treatment rules. The hirer is then liable in the same way as a guarantor. In other words: Non-compliance on the part of the staffing agency can end up as a concrete and immediate cost for the hirer.
How should the hirer relate to the rules?
From a management perspective, equal treatment is not only a minimum legal requirement, but also a question of fairness, culture and reputation. Temporary workers often work side by side with permanent employees. If they experience systematically poorer pay and working conditions, this can lead to dissatisfaction, higher turnover and an increased risk of conflicts and claims. Clear, documented and verifiable routines for hiring and equal treatment are therefore both a compliance tool and a management tool.
As a hirer, there are therefore three elements in particular that the company should check before hiring employees: that the company has updated and documented terms and conditions for comparable positions, that this information is shared in writing with the staffing agency, and that ongoing checks are carried out to ensure that the hired employee receives the terms and conditions to which they are entitled. In this way, the risk of joint and several liability is reduced and the principle of equal treatment is maintained.
Get in touch with our labour law team. We have good insight into the regulations and extensive experience in assisting both employers and employees with issues related to temporary workers.
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