Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Case lawEmployment lawLatest NewsEmployment tribunalsSecondment

Royal Mail loses appeal against agency worker decision

by Ashleigh Webber 10 Jul 2020
by Ashleigh Webber 10 Jul 2020 loocmill / Shutterstock.com
loocmill / Shutterstock.com

Royal Mail Group and Angard Staffing Solutions, a Royal Mail subsidiary that supplies workers to the mail carrier exclusively, have lost their appeal against the decision that a group of workers could be defined as agency workers and are entitled to the same employment rights as Royal Mail employees.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) agreed with an employment tribunal’s decision that Mr D Kocur, who had worked for Angard since 2015, is an “agency worker” within the meaning of Regulation 3 of the Agency Workers Regulations and that Angard is a “temporary work agency” within Regulation 4.

Agency workers’ rights

What are the legal rights of agency workers? 

Agency staff gain new rights under the Good Work Plan

Mr Kocur was employed by Angard Staffing Solutions and seconded to Royal Mail to work at a sorting centre in Leeds. He reached 12 weeks’ continuous service by June 2015, triggering his right to equal treatment with Royal Mail employees under the regulations.

In October 2015 he raised a grievance about getting shorter breaks than the direct Royal Mail employees, and he later took the company and Angard to tribunal for other instances of alleged unfair treatment such as not being given a swipe card to access the premises; being denied access to the on-site fitness centre and not being paid for rest breaks or receiving the same level of annual leave entitlement.

The tribunal dismissed his claims, but the EAT later allowed his appeal in relation to annual leave and rest breaks.

The recent case – Angard Staffing Solutions and Royal Mail Group v Mr D Kocur and Others – sought to clarify the worker status of Kocur and a number of other staff supplied to Royal Mail by Angard.

The employment tribunal last year ruled that they should be considered agency workers. However, Royal Mail and Angard argued at the EAT that the tribunal had not given regard to the fact that Kocur was seconded to work exclusively for Royal Mail, and that as each supply of work was time-limited, it was therefore impossible to categorise the relationship as an open-ended arrangement, which the tribunal felt made Kocur an agency worker.

Irwin Mitchell, the law firm that represented Kocur and the other claimants, told the EAT that Angard and Royal Mail relied upon the fact that the claimants’ contracts with the agency were of indefinite duration; however, neither of these features took their work outside the definition of agency work.

Judge Auerbach found that the tribunal had carefully considered what happened in practice and had correctly interpreted case law in coming to its conclusion.

Shazia Khan, an employment partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: “My clients are delighted that the EAT recognised this appeal for what it was – another shameless attempt by Angard Staffing Solutions and Royal Mail to treat my clients as second class citizens by denying them their agency worker rights.

“We are disappointed that the unfavourable treatment continues with the failure to provide equal access to provision of PPE and hand sanitisation bottles to my agency worker clients as compared to Royal Mail workers.

“My clients have further been denied the £200 recognition payment awarded for the role postal workers continue to play during the Covid-19 crisis. The payment has apparently only been made to Royal Mail colleagues and not agency workers in recognition of the their efforts during the pandemic

“The ET made it very clear that Mr Kocur and my clients are agency workers and should be treated in the same way as Royal Mail’s own employees. Perhaps Royal Mail and Angard Staffing Solutions will now finally take this on board.”

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We value the work and commitment of all individuals who work in our business. We will reflect on the Judgment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal and will consider an appeal to the Court of Appeal.“

Latest HR job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more human resources jobs

Royal Mail
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is a former editor of OHW+ and former HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support.

previous post
Proposal to erase minor convictions from criminal record checks
next post
MP’s bid to protect women from unfair redundancy gets over first hurdle

You may also like

Minister defends Employment Rights Bill at Acas conference

16 May 2025

CBI chair Soames accuses ministers of not listening...

16 May 2025

EHRC bows to pressure and extends gender consultation

15 May 2025

Contract cleaner loses EAT race discrimination appeal

14 May 2025

Construction workers win compensation claim against defunct employer

9 May 2025

Zero-hours workers’ rights to be extended from beyond...

8 May 2025

Employment tribunal backlog up 23% in a year

7 May 2025

Ministers urged to outlaw misuse of NDAs

7 May 2025

Employment Rights Bill must be tightened to protect...

1 May 2025

Lords criticise ‘opaque’, ‘on-the-hoof’ Employment Rights Bill

30 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+