Under the Act an íemployment agencyí is defined as the business of providing services (whether by the provision of information or otherwise) for the purpose of finding workers employment with employers or of supplying employers with workers for employment by them.
At present the DTI is interpreting this definition to include all job advertising boards and on-line recruiters, until persuaded otherwise.
Since the activities required by the Regulations includes confirmation of the identity, experience, education, and qualifications of candidates at some stage of the process of introducing the work seeker to a potential hirer this could present problems for any job board or on-line recruitment company which is not already doing this.
The Regulations are also very specific about information to be obtained from hirers before vacancies are posted.
I would be interested to find out the views of organisations running job boards on how they think this will affect them.
Michael Organe
Project Search Ltd
Michael.Organe@project-search.com
Employment Agency Act (1973) and new Regulations (2003)
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