Labour user best practice
Labour users have an essential role in maintaining the health, safety and welfare conditions for workers.
Check your labour provider is licensed
If you are a labour user in the sectors regulated by the GLAA, you must use a licensed labour provider. It is a criminal offence to supply labour without a licence or use an unlicensed labour provider.
The list below sets out what you can do to ensure you are using workers from a licensed provider:
- Use the public register to check your labour provider has a current GLAA licence
- Sign up for the active check service to keep up to date with any changes to your labour provider’s licence
- Read the ‘Supermarkets' and suppliers best practice guide’ and conduct an audit of your labour provider
- Check the minimum charge rates table to calculate whether your labour provider is charging an acceptable rate - these can be found under GLAA Briefs
- Make sure you have a list of all the workers on site
- Inform the GLAA of any breaches to the licensing standards
- Contact us if you need any advice or guidance
How you can help your labour provider
You can work with your labour provider to help them retain their licence:
- Have your agreement with them in writing
- Co-operate with them to ensure the work site complies with health and safety legislation
- Pay a rate that is high enough to meet legal requirements
Shellfish gathering
If you are a labour user in the shellfish gathering sector you are classed as a gangmaster and will require a licence. Click on the link for more information on this sector.
Sub-contracting
You should be aware of any other labour providers that your labour provider uses and ensure they have records of all sub-contracts. Check that all sub-contractor labour providers have a GLAA licence.
Work out pay from an umbrella company
This HMRC tool helps you to work out gross and net pay if you're a worker or employment business using an umbrella company.
The tool details the assignment rate (sometimes known as the ‘umbrella rate’), gross and net pay figures, as well as common deductions such as Income Tax, NICs, Apprenticeship Levy, employer and employee pension contributions and student loan (plan 1,2,4 and post grad). The tool can also help identify where incorrect deductions have been made, supporting users to ensure that their tax payments are correct.
Visit GOV.UK to find out more.
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Reasonable steps booklet: Defra guidance for labour users