hello everybody,
wanted to ask a question regarding the sitaution i’m in. i’ve always been an agency driver, but thanks to God, i now have chance to become permanent with a proper company. so this is my situation;
today went to work on agency shift, shift got cancelled, nevertheless i got my 8 hours pay!, went talking to the boss, about work, he said there’s plenty, at that point i asked if i could become permanent…wow! he said if i asked weeks ago he would have made me permanent with them ages ago!!! but he couldn’t ask me because he would have to pay agency a large fee, basically i would have to ask first!, never knew that! lesson learned. anyways filled in application form, and told assessment drive with trainer on Monday, would have done it there and then but the trainer wasnt working today.
now agency texted a few hours[ i was in cinema watching superman! lol] later telling me that next week i’m on a temp to perm contract with same company. i’ve been asking agency for weeks, for this temp to perm, and today when i asked the gaffer direct, he says i should have asked for a job weeks ago!!!
now what do i do. tell boss about my temp to perm with him, or tell agency i’m becoming full time permanent with the company. OR shall i go for assessment, pass, then tell agency “thank you, i’m now full time with company so cancel my temp to perm”? {what if i fail the assessment■■? i’ll have no leg to stand on with both parties}
the agency , although i’ve only been with them for a short while, have been really really good, polite and respectful to me, but the ONLY reason i signed up with them was to work, and hopefully become permanent for for the said company!
[forgive me for any mistakes, the ambiguity btw is so that this post doesnt bite me in the backside, at work or with agency]
If your already working for said company then your assessment will be fine surely?
As for agency either tell them your sick or take any holiday days your owed do the assessment pass it then hand your notice in. Don’t expect to get any money owed though.
Honestly cut your losses and jump ship into perm!!
Well done and good luck amigo
Im owed over 500 for this week Lol.
From experience, it’s illegal to withhold any earnings for work completed and easy enough to recover, so nothing to worry about there.
global.
Just do what you wanna do, most others do the same.
pull a sickie, do the assesment but dont tell the agency youve went full time with said company just say youve found a job and if they ask just lie.there good at doing it to you so do it to them
Use your loaf, do what’s best for YOU! Forget upsetting the agy, just please you self.
you don’t need to tell the agency anything , just withdraw your services saying you’ve managed to find a permanent position
MolePower:
you don’t need to tell the agency anything , just withdraw your services saying you’ve managed to find a permanent position
+1
Do your assesment get a permenant start date then simply give the agency notice.
That way you’ve been fair with them just incase you ever want to go back.
It’s an agency people come and go all the time.
What a strange state of affairs, the company you are contracted to through an agency allow you to drive their vehicle, yet they want to assess you to become permanent. I wouldnt worry about that bit, it should be simply a box ticking exercise.You already have an idea what they want already, the paperwork is familiar to you and the agencies are just pariahs anyway.
Good Luck
Well Big T seems you are getting a lot of advice on here some good some bad and some useless i was an agency driver for 14 years but that’s because it suited me so will try to put you on the right road.
First of all the shift got cancelled and you were paid the 8 hours for the cancelled shift that means in your contract verbal or written you are still at the beck and call of the agency because they have paid you 8 hours they can call you any time in that 8 hours to go to another job if you refuse the agency can have the whole 8 hours pay back by law.
As for the agency saying they will charge the company a fee they can do this even if you don’t tell them you have taken up a full time position with that company again this comes down to your contract because the agency sent you to the client technically they introduced the labour to them and they can claim the cost back from you even if the company you are going to work for wont pay them.
You are owed £500 for the weeks work and yes you are entitled to that but in law if the agency has suspicions that you have gone to work for that employer they can hold your money till the employer pays them and if they don’t it has just cost you your £500 plus small claims court cost’s as well to get your money back.
Reading between the lines on some of the replies on here to you i am reading the agency is not a proper employer but take it from me they are they pay you monies for doing the jobs they send you to and pay you holiday pay as well just like an employer does and if you walk off from an employer the employer will hold your money and that is legal for them to do that as well.
As for taking the assessment all you need to do is either say you are not available that day for work as with an agency you are the boss not them you decied when you work and when you don’t or you can go the other route and just say you are going for a driving assessment to try and get full time employment and they have to let you have the time off.
Now for the company you are going to work for they hold all the ace cards all they have to do is tell the agency that they are happy with you starting for them and if the agency want to charge them it can be £500 or £100 for the introduction of labour all the company has to say is fine if you charge us we will use another agency you will be amazed at how quick they will cancel that fee.
AS for just walking off not a good idea you may need the agency again in the future ( but i hope you don’t ) plus with notice you will give them no reason not to pay up in full week in hand and any holiday pay accumulated plus how would you like it if some did the dirty on you not nice also i know you say you want to work for that company but sometimes the grass is not always as green when you get there as in most employers give agency drivers the easier work ( not saying that you do ).
So the choice is yours do you tell the agency and tell the employer to stand up to the agency plus give your notice and get all the pay owed to you.
Or do you say nothing walk off loose all your pay and holiday pay and risk the agency no setting you on again if you need them after all it will only be for 1 week.
Plus if you are already driving for this company they know how you drive and if you run legal or not so can’t see the point in you taking an assessment driving test pointless stand back and take a good long hard look at the employer.
And before anyone jumps on the band wagon been in road haulage since i was 15 years of age they had yard boys when i started i am 56 nearly 57 now so yes i can driver class 1 trucks and rope and sheet dogs ( tensioners ) and chain coil carriers strip and build tilts tippers and the list goes on so Big T hope this has been of some help to you.
Well I too was an agency driver for nearly 10 years. I then went to work for one of their customers.
When they first asked me they assumed that, like with any other job, I could just give notice etc. They then discovered that they had a contract with the agency and it had a clause stipulating what would happen in the event they wanted a driver to transfer. I don’t know the exact details but there was a large payment involved.
In the event I went on to a temp-to-perm deal and then transferred. My new employer grumbled quite a bit at how much I had cost them, but I think they got their money’s worth because they kept me on well past retirement.
At the time of the transfer, it was suggested to me that I could just quit with the agency full stop. Then apply for the new job and start there. I was reluctant as that meant burning my bridges with an agency that, on the whole, wasn’t THAT bad, and my contract with them was as a full time driver (I got 40 hours pay minimum). The new employer was nervous too, as they wanted to continue to use that agency and they would surely find out. That would have meant a civil dispute about the compensation in their contract.
I had a similar situation the other year. I’d signed with an agency & got sent for a few jobs, no problems at all with staff or pay, always spot on. They then asked if I was interested in working all December 2011 for ASDA on a rota, no problem with that so I said yes, this was in November. I then got sent to a job trunking on the Monday night, job was a doddle, double decker trunk to fradley park. I was asked again the next night which I did. The TM asked if I was interested in a full time job so I said yes, filled in an application for him. no more agency that week but got a call from the TM asking if I was still interested, which I was, so I went in on the Friday night and was put on a weeks trial.
After the trial, during which time I did not get any agency work, I was taken on full time. I told the agency & all they asked was who would they get for the ASDA job now! Never heard from them again and company paid them nothing.
I’ve worked for a few agencies over the years & left them for other things and occasionally went back no problems. I wouldn’t sweat over leaving them as they will still be calling you next year to see if you want any shifts.
Before you all start off with the usual anti-agency stuff… has anyone considered the possibility that the company has mentioned to the agency in the interim few hours that BigT is interested in a permanent job, and a deal has been struck? If so, he’s going to make a right fool of himself if he throws a sickie on the assessment day with both sides knowing full well what he should be doing.
My advice; play it straight. It looks to me as though you’ve got at least a chance of a permanent job here, which after all is what you wanted. Try cheating either side and you’ll do yourself no favours.
Since my post Big T all you have is good sound advice if i were you i would take it on board. 
Why do you need assessing if you’ve already worked for them? Insurance? Nah. Company ■■■■■■■■? Probably… 
thank you all for helping me out, i’ll do the assessment[ that i have no clue why? I’ve drove for them for a month now] and the tell agency thank you so much, i have secured a job with the said company. it must not be something that major if the boss told me yes[ i can become permanent with the company], he could have told me to go on the temp to perm, or said leave agency then come, but he didnt, so i’m assuming its happened before and they know how to deal with it.
but , worst case scenario, if no assessment comes this Monday, and i get a cold shoulder than I’ve got the temp to perm to fall back on.
the agency will pay what they owe to me, i’m not going to do anything sly with them, as some of you have pointed out, i could be using them in the future.
my only fear is that I may be on a lower wage than i was on with agency, but at least its regular and stable.
Withheld wages for work carried out can be recovered through a tribunal and WILL eventually be paid.
global.
I would have requested to sit down with the boss (who sounds quite amenable) at the co. you’re going to work for and put my cards on the table. Explained exactly the position I was in.
He might have told you the agency were already aware. If not, I would have asked him, If I played ball with him and saved him a large transfer fee, what was he going to do for me in return? (over & above offer me the perm. job).
Driveroneuk:
I would have requested to sit down with the boss (who sounds quite amenable) at the co. you’re going to work for and put my cards on the table. Explained exactly the position I was in.He might have told you the agency were already aware. If not, I would have asked him, If I played ball with him and saved him a large transfer fee, what was he going to do for me in return? (over & above offer me the perm. job).
i will, on Monday, this happened on Friday, i was speechless, didn’t know what to make of it, like i said in my first post, I’ve never worked on a permanent basis, always agency.
[ a few moments later…brains abit slow this time of night]
actually i vaguely remember telling him now. this is why he wanted me to ask him, not other way round. and when i asked, he said the doors wide open for you mate!. anyway, assessment or something like that on Monday. he didnt say what time , so i’m going to call him Monday morning. i hope they dont make me do the assessment though. through the temp to perm you automatically go on their books[ so i’ve been told!], so i dont see why i cant be after filling in the application form[because i’ve worked for them for the last few [45 hour] weeks.]