Complaints Procedure

Complaints Policy

Bucks and Berks Recruitment is committed to providing you the best possible service. However, there may be occasions when:

• you feel you have not received a satisfactory service from us or
• have not been treated fairly when working as a Temporary Worker or
• you feel we have not followed our privacy & data protection policy for candidates (available at https://www.bucksandberks.co.uk/terms-conditions)

If you believe that we have not acted appropriately on any of these aspects, we want to know about it because this helps us to improve our
service and standards.

Complaints Procedure

Stage 1 – Informal – Where you first make your complaint

All complaints are treated extremely serious and we will always try to resolve your complaint quickly, fairly and informally to the satisfaction of all parties’ concerned.

If you are unhappy with our service and have a complaint please contact the branch that you have been dealing with and direct the complaint to the Consultant you have been working with or the Manager. You can do this by calling, emailing or writing to:

Jubilee House, Third Avenue, Marlow, Bucks, SL7 1EY • Tel No: 01628 898899 • Email: marlow@bucksandberks.co.uk or if related to data protection please call or email the Data Protection Officer at dpo@bucksandberks.co.uk or 01628 898899.

Contact details are also obtainable from our website www.bucksandberks.co.uk, ‘contact us’ section.

In the first instance the Consultant and/or the Manager will do their very best to rectify your complaint within 24 hours and they will do this by responding to you either by telephone, email or letter. Sometimes it may take longer to look into the matter fully. If this happens, we will attempt to resolve the issue within five working days and in either case we will keep you informed of the progress.

If after Stage 1 our informal process is not to your satisfaction please contact our Managing Director. You can write to them at Jubilee House, Third Avenue, Marlow, Bucks, SL7 1EY or email marlow@bucksandberks.co.uk and mark any correspondence for their attention.

N.B. Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) – Fair Treatment Complaints only. If you are a Temporary Worker on a current assignment or the assignment has finished within the last 3 months and your complaint relates to fair treatment under the Agency Workers Regulations (AWR) then, if it cannot be resolved informally to your satisfaction in Stage 1 above, you should write directly to Managing Director, Jubilee House, Third Avenue, Marlow, Bucks, SL7 1EY or email marlow@bucksandberks.co.uk. Once you have put your complaint in writing in this way, we are required by the regulations to respond to that written request for information about the treatment that a Temporary Worker has received, within 28 days of receipt.

Stage 2 – Next Step

After contacting our Managing Director we will send you an email or letter acknowledging your complaint and asking you to confirm or explain the details set out. We will also let you know the name of the person who will be dealing with your complaint. You can expect to receive our email or letter within three working days of us receiving your complaint.

We will record your complaint on our database normally within a day of having received it.

We will reply to your communication and confirm what will happen next. You can expect to receive our acknowledgement letter within seven working days of your reply.

We will then start to investigate your complaint. This will normally involve the following steps;

• We may ask the member of staff who dealt with you to reply to your complaint within five working days;
• If the Complaint is not resolved, the Managing Director will then examine the member of staff’s reply and the information you have provided.
The Managing Director will then invite you to discuss and hopefully resolve your complaint.
• Within five working days of the discussion the Managing Director will write to you to confirm what took place and any solutions s/he has agreed with you.

If you do not want a meeting or it is not possible, we will send you a detailed reply to your complaint. This will include any suggestions for resolving the matter. This will be done within five working days of completing the investigation.

Stage 3 – External Arbitration

Bucks and Berks Recruitment is a corporate member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and a number of our staff are individual members. Consequently we not only aim to meet the REC’s Code of Professional Practice but exceed it.

Whilst we hope that you will bring any relevant issues to our attention under our complaints procedure, if, after following all the internal procedures, you remain dissatisfied, you may wish to refer your complaint to the REC.

Please note – the REC has its own complaint handling process and you should ensure that you read this before continuing. You can write to the REC and mark it for the attention of the Consultancy and Compliance Team, REC, Dorset House, 1st Floor, 27-45 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NT.

Notes

• If we have to change any of the time scales above, we will let you know.
• In any event, we will comply with any statutory procedures that may relate to your complaint.
• Following our complaints procedure does not affect your legal rights.
• You can access the REC’s Code of Professional Practice at:
https://www.rec.uk.com/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/123650/rec-code-of-practice-2014-1.pdf
and the REC Complaints Procedure at:
https://www.rec.uk.com/membership/compliance/complaints/how-to-complain-about-an-rec-member