The ways people work are always evolving, making employers think about how to keep all their workers healthy and safe.
The type of work activity discussed here is the short-term, informal working type where work is generally:
- On-demand;
- Obtained through an online platform, or
- Delivered on a task-by-task basis.
Whilst covering many sectors, this type of work is mainly associated with the transport and logistics sectors, for example, courier work. With regards to health and safety, gig economy workers deserve, expect, and are legally entitled to the same as other workers, despite being called “agency workers, temporary workers or self-employed workers”. If the workers are regarded as a limb (b) worker, then they also have certain employment rights.
HSE provides separate advice for the gig economy, agency or temporary workers. It covers their rights and their own responsibilities under health and safety law.
Agency workers
This refers to individuals who are supplied by an employment agency to work for another employer (the ‘end user’ or ‘principal’). In this case, the employment agency is a recruitment agency, and once they have introduced the worker to an employer, the relationship between the worker and the agency ends. The employer has responsibility for the worker’s health and safety in the same way as for any employee.
If an employment business places a worker for short periods of work with an employer (end user), but the worker remains under a contractual relationship with the employment business, then the guidance for temporary workers applies.
Temporary employees
A business might recruit workers directly for short periods of time without using a third-party agency. This could include taking on additional retail staff during the busy summer or festive periods or taking on administrative staff to meet short-term increases in work. In such cases, the recruited worker is an employee, and the business is their employer and has responsibility for their health and safety in the same way as for all their employees.
To avoid accidents, causing harm and facing prosecution, ensure your business complies with Health and Safety law in 2025, by:
- Conducting risk assessments as and when required (prior to undertaking activities).
- Providing training regarding the risks involved and how to manage them.
- Supervising risk management, as necessary, until competence is demonstrated.
- Formally reviewing risk assessments and associated safe systems of work regularly.
- Updating training provided (toolbox talks, in-house or external formal training).
- Keeping/updating records of all the above processes.