When does an agency worker reach 12 weeks under AWR?

How the 12 weeks are counted

The qualifying period is 12 continuous calendar weeks in the same role with the same hirer, over one or more assignments (regulation 7(2)). A calendar week is any 7 days starting with the first day of the assignment. A worker who starts on a Tuesday has weeks running Tuesday to Monday.

• Any week in which the worker does some work counts in full, whatever the hours. One shift is enough.
• Weeks are counted per hirer. Moving to a different hirer starts a new 12 weeks, even through the same agency.
• Equal treatment starts in week 13, so the hirer has to give the agency the pay and conditions information in good time.
• A different agency supplying the same worker to the same hirer in the same role does not restart the count.

Breaks that pause, keep counting or reset the clock

A break is a whole calendar week with no work. Regulation 7(8) lists the breaks that do not break continuity. For most of them the weeks off do not count but the weeks before carry forward (a pause). For pregnancy and family leave the worker is treated as still working, so the clock keeps running.

Anything else that stops work for more than 6 calendar weeks resets the count to zero. The tracker treats a gap as more than 6 weeks once it runs past 42 days. If a break is close to that line, check exactly how the calendar weeks fall.

Worked example: Christmas shutdown and a week off sick

A worker starts with a hirer on Monday 2 November 2026, so each calendar week runs Monday to Sunday. With no breaks, the 12th week would end on Sunday 24 January 2027 and equal treatment would start on Monday 25 January 2027.

• The site closes from 24 December 2026 to 3 January 2027. The week of 21 December still counts, because the worker worked on the Monday to Wednesday. The week of 28 December has no work and is a planned shutdown, so it pauses the clock.
• The worker is off sick from 11 January 2027 to 17 January 2027, one whole week. Sickness under 28 weeks pauses the clock again.

Two weeks are paused, so the 12th counting week ends on Sunday 7 February 2027 and equal treatment starts on Monday 8 February 2027. This is the example loaded in the tracker above.

What changes at week 13, and what applies from day one

From week 13 the worker is entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as if the hirer had recruited them directly. Regulation 6 lists these as pay, the duration of working time, night work, rest periods, rest breaks and annual leave. Pay includes holiday pay, fees, bonuses and commission linked to the work, but not occupational sick pay, pensions or redundancy pay.

Two rights apply from the first day of an assignment: no less favourable access to the hirer's collective facilities, such as a canteen, childcare or transport, unless justified on objective grounds (regulation 12), and being told about relevant vacancies with the hirer (regulation 13).

Anti-avoidance and the end of the Swedish derogation

Regulation 9 stops a hirer or agency structuring assignments to keep a worker from reaching 12 weeks, for example by rotating roles or using planned breaks. If that is the most likely explanation for the pattern, the worker is treated as having qualified when they otherwise would have.

The Swedish derogation let an agency employ a worker on a permanent contract with pay between assignments and, in return, not give them equal pay after 12 weeks. The Agency Workers (Amendment) Regulations 2019 removed it from 6 April 2020. Those contracts no longer avoid equal pay.