Recruitment agency withholding pay

[madonna1]

My boyfriend got some work through a recruitment agency, guaranteed for 4 weeks but only lasted 1 week. Now the agency are saying they haven't had a timesheet through and therefore questioning whether he'll get paid or not (meant to be tomorrow). Doesn't even sound like they're chasing the company up about it. My question is, can they legally do that? Where does he stand if they still say "no" to paying him? I've found various things on the internet that say you DO need a timesheet (whether signed or not) to get paid, but others say that's not a reason to not get paid. He filled in his timesheet and passed it to the manager of the company where he was working at, as he was told to do. Said manager has now been put on a leave of absence after being verbally abusive (VERY!) with the agency workers and then kicking them off site!

[ULA]

Your boyfriend is covered by The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003.

Agencies do usually require that the agency worker gets their timesheet signed by the hirer/manager at the end of each day or at the end of each week. In practice, though hirers/managers may refuse to sign timesheets where, for example, they are not happy with the standard of work carried out. However, a hirer’s/manager’s refusal to sign a timesheet or if a timesheet has not been signed for other reasons such as the manager is on a leave of absence is not a lawful ground for an agency to withhold payment. In such circumstances, the agency should satisfy itself by other means your boyfriend worked for the particular period in question, for example, by asking the hirer or another manger on the site.

The agency could delay payment whilst it makes these inquiries to verify the hours worked, however, in such circumstances payment should only be delayed for a relatively short period of time and should at least have been notified to your boyfriend in my opinion.

[madonna1]

No pay yet although they say it’ll be in his account later on today. Got his payslip though and they haven’t paid him enough hours! Something else to contend with! They’ve also deducted money for pension. Can they do this considering it’s the first time he’s worked through them?

[ULA]

Agencies are required to auto enrol workers into a pension scheme but your boyfriend should be given the option to "opt-out".