Agency Workers: Law and HR Best Practice

Sarah Veale, Head, Equality and Employment Rights Department, Trade Union Congress (TUC) Trade Union Congress (TUC)

Sarah Veale is Head of the Equality and Employment Rights Department at the TUC. The Department leads on employment rights, both individual and collective, employment relations and equality at work. Before becoming Head of Equality and Employment Rights, Sarah was Senior Employment Rights Officer at the TUC, in which role she was responsible for the development of TUC policy on employment law. She co-ordinated TUC activities in relation to the introduction of the Employment Relations Act 1999 and wrote the TUC Guide to the Act. She was also responsible for various TUC submissions to the Government, and was a member of the TUC team which negotiated the recent national agreement with the CBI and the Government on temporary agency work. She regularly briefs senior union officers on developments in employment and discrimination law and policy and speaks at conferences and events. She is co-author of “Your Rights at Work”, the TUC’s book on employment rights.

Michael Bradshaw, Partner, Charles Russell

Michael Bradshaw is a partner in the Employment and Pensions Service Group of City firm, Charles Russell LLP. He regularly provides client training on employment matters and is an experienced conference speaker on the subject. Michael otherwise provides advice to businesses on the full range of employment matters, including managing dismissals, Employment Tribunal claims, reorganisations and redundancies, and TUPE transfers. He has acted in one of the leading cases on agency workers, Muscat v Cable & Wireless and regularly advises clients on the matters relating to agency workers.

Nick Hurley, Partner, Charles Russell

Nick works on both contentious and non-contentious employment law issues.  On the contentious side, Nick has broad experience both in the Employment Tribunals and in the High and County Courts.  Nick’s non-contentious experience covers a wide spectrum of work ranging from drafting employment agreements and policies to advising on employment law issues relating to the sale and purchase of businesses and outsourcing.Nick is a regular contributor to newspapers and journals and also regularly lectures on employment law issues as well as being involved in radio broadcasts. Nick has a strong corporate focus to his work and acts for a number of clients within the Financial Services, Energy and Insurance sector and is actively involved in the City HR Association (including currently sitting on the Training and Events Sub-committee).

Damian Whitham, Commercial Director – UK EMEA Manpower

Damian Whitham joined the Manpower group in July 2005 where he has overall responsibility for finance, client Services, risk, contracts and human resources. Damian is a qualified accountant having spent more than eight years with Arthur Andersen in their London office.Damian joined the group from Energis where he spent over two years, initially joining as Commercial Finance Director but then moved on to perform a number of different roles within finance and sales. Prior to Energis, Damian spent four years at Vodafone in a variety of financial, commercial and operational roles.

Laura Devine

Laura Devine is head of a large niche immigration firm with an office in London and an associated office in New York which provide UK and US immigration advice to a broad range of clients.  Her team of 17 specialist lawyers is identified as an ‘immensely capable team’ with a ‘sheer number of first-class practitioners’ with technical expertise, approachability and exceptional client service.  Laura is the UK representative of the International Bar Association Immigration Committee, a council member of the Law Society, a member of the Law Society Immigration Committee and a fellow of the Center for International Legal Studies, a member of the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the New York State Bar.  She is the immigration correspondent for the Law Society Gazette and a contributor to Tottel’s Immigration Asylum and Nationality Law.  Laura is an English solicitor and a US attorney with an LLM from the London School of Economics.  She established the immigration practices at Coopers & Lybrand (now PWC) and Eversheds, before establishing her own law firm in June 2003 which is rated in all legal directories in the top tier of immigration firms.  She is a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary University London and is recognised as the highest nominated UK immigration practitioner by interviewees worldwide in Who’s Who Legal 2009. Laura has visited over 70 countries.

Kevin Barrow

Kevin is a partner in Osborne Clarke's employment practice in the firm's recruitment and resourcing team.  He advises on national and international flexible workforce projects,  including business process, HR and recruitment process outsourcing, as well as business protection, tax and regulatory advice relating to temporary and contract staff.Kevin's clients include Harvey Nash Group plc, Matchtech Group plc, Robert Walters plc, Radia and many other suppliers and users of recruitment and staffing services.

Kevin is an acknowledged expert in the recruitment sector and speaks regularly at industry conferences and seminars.  He is an active member of the Association of Professional Staffing Companies, runs quarterly workshops for the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and is regularly involved in consultations with the UK Government about employment and tax legislation affecting the use of temporary and contract staff.  He joined Osborne Clarke as a partner in January 2010.