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THIS WAS THE MONTH THAT WAS… Here is a round-up of some of the most popular news stories we have brought you on recruiter.co.uk since the February issue of Recruiter was published J A N U A R Y •‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒→
TUE, 17 JAN 2017
FRI, 20 JAN 2017
TUE, 24 JAN 2017
APPRENTICE CANDIDATE THAKRAR JOINS FORMER WINNER MARTIN AT HRS
RECRUITER’S DILIGENCE PREVENTS SCAM AND SERVES AS WARNING TO OTHER AGENCIES
REC EXPELS VALLEY EDUCATION SERVICES FOR PAYMENT MISTAKES IN BREACH OF ITS CODE
Trishna Thakrar, one of the candidates in the latest series of the BBC’s The Apprentice, has returned to the world of agency recruitment by joining previous Apprentice winner Ricky Martin in his recruitment business. Martin told Recruiter he met Thakrar at the taping of The Apprentice and spoke to her about her future ambitions, eventually deciding to take her on as head of the firm’s IT division at his science and technology recruitment firm Hyper Recruitment Solutions (HRS). More: http://bit.ly/2k9W9BS
Recruiters have been urged to follow their instincts if something “does not feel right” about email communications sent from prospective clients, or risk falling victim to fraud. The warning comes from Matt Paine, technical sales director for the UK at EPSN Workforce, and follows his own agency narrowly missing out on falling victim to fraud. The type of fraud, which non-profit, joint industry and law enforcement organisation SAFERjobs alerted readers to earlier in the year, involves recruitment agencies being contacted by people claiming to work on behalf of a business looking for contractor personnel. In these cases both the representatives of the apparent employer and the contractor candidates they refer to the agency turn out to be fraudulent. Victims falling for the fraud suffer significant subsequent financial loss when the recruiter pays the successful candidate for the contractor role for a period of time – and then doesn’t get paid by the employers. EPSN’s vigilance has also benefitted another agency – a colleague of Paine’s, who works for a partner agency, he revealed. The agency in question was in the process of setting up contracts involving the same placement but was informed of the scam and avoided a loss running into thousands of pounds.
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation has expelled education recruiter Valley Education Services (VES) for being unclear on day rates, failing to pay the National Living Wage and not paying a worker for four months, resulting in a breach of five principles of the REC Code of Professional Practice. Following a complaint by a worker, the REC launched an investigation that also took in a site visit to VES. The agency was found to be in breach of the REC code, including Principle 1, respect for laws; Principle 2, respect for honesty and transparency; Principle 6, respect for professional knowledge; Principle 7, respect for certainty of engagement; and Principle 8, respect for prompt and accurate payment. Expanding on these breaches, an REC spokesperson told Recruiter VES was found to have told the complainant they were on a certain day rate and holiday pay was being accrued, but in fact the agency was deducting holiday pay from the worker’s day rate. Given the hours the complainant was working, this meant in some cases they were not being paid the National Living Wage. Recruiter contacted VES for comment but the agency failed to respond. More: http://bit.ly/2kFfRXi
More: http://bit.ly/2keaQl1
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MARCH 2017
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09/02/2017 12:56