| Author (Person) | Bower, Helen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 23.3.03 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 23/03/2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Europeans may find temporary agency work more appealing in the future if proposals [COM(2002)149] tabled by the European Commission on 20 March 2002 get the go ahead from the European Parliament and the Council. The draft Directive put forward by the European Commission would establish a minimum EU wide level of protection for temporary workers which the European Commission claims would help the sector to 'develop as a flexible option for employers and workers' (IP/02/441). The European Commission further argues that this will help the European Union to achieve the goals set out at the European Council, Lisbon, 23-24 March 2000 of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. Speaking about the proposal the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou said,
Background Proposals for regulating the rights of temporary agency workers at the EU level were discussed as far back as 1995 when Padraig Flynn, the then European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs spoke of the need to involve the social partners in any consultation in this area of social policy. (IP/95/1050) However it is such consultation which has led to the stalling of such proposals, particularly during 2001 as negotiations between labour and business organisations broke down. The Union of Industrial and Employers Confederations of Europe (UNICE) and the European Trade Union Confederation ( ETUC) regularly argued over the form the proposals should take and specifically over the definition of "comparable worker". ETUC insisted that a comparable worker should be a worker in the user company rather than a worker in the same temporary work agency but UNICE disagreed, saying such a definition was "totally unjustified". As a result an impasse was reached in May 2001. While the proposals have been on the drawing table, the number of temporary agency workers has increased steadily throughout the European Union. Recent studies carried out by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and the International Confederation of Temporary Work Companies (CIETT) suggest with an annual growth of 10% between 1991 and 1998 reaching 1.4% of total employment in Europe in 1998. There appear to be four key reasons for this growth:
In order to achieve Lisbon's goals the European insists on the need for more and better jobs through temporary work because it enables the overall number of jobs to be increased and is particularly suited to the flexibility aspect of today's economy. However, in order to attract citizens to such work, it needs to offer a similar quality to that available in permanent jobs. The European Commission recognises that this will become even more important as the working population declines in the coming years. Therefore the proposals have been put forward in the wake of renewed efforts at Barcelona to focus on achieving Lisbon's goals. Proposals on temporary agency workers The key objective of the proposal [COM(2002)149] is to provide a minimum level of protection for temporary agency workers across the EU by establishing the general principle of non-discrimination of temporary workers in terms of basic working conditions to the comparable worker, including pay, as soon as the temporary worker has completed 6 weeks work in the same user undertaking. Crucially, the EU has defined "comparable worker" as,
The European Commission has also allowed for some flexibility in the proposal by citing four cases where exceptions to the general principle of non-discrimination are possible. They are:
Reaction to the Proposals Initial reactions from the social partners suggest that the European Commission's argument proposal might have won the support of labour organisations but the business sector remains strongly opposed to it. The European Trade Union Confederation welcomed the proposal, saying the European Commission had struck the "right note" but criticised the timeframe applied to the principle of non-discrimination, saying
The Federation of European Employers was vociferous in its criticism of the proposals saying,
Euro-CIETT, the European branch of the International Confederation of Temporary Businesses were also "disappointed" with the substance of the proposal saying,
UNICE, the voice of European business, called the proposal ill-conceived and specifically criticised the European Commission's definition of "comparable worker" saying,
It went on to suggest that such a proposal would have the opposite effect of Lisbon's goal of creating more jobs, saying,
Clearly, the proposal is likely to face continued opposition. Just as the breakdown of the social partner negotiations led to a lengthy stall in the proposal's progress so too could its passage through the EU's decision making process with both the European Parliament's and the Council's agreement needed for the proposal to go through by co-decision. To trace the full progress of the proposal through the policy-making process you can use these services.
While the European Commission continues to reassert its aims of achieving the Lisbon goals, amidst such opposition, the proposal on temporary agency workers could prove to be counter-productive Further information within European Sources Online:
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions Further and subsequent information on the subject of this In Focus can be found by an 'Advanced Search' in European Sources Online by inserting 'temporary agency workers' in the keyword field. Helen Bower The European Commission proposed a new Directive on 20 March 2002 that would establish a minimum EU wide level of protection for temporary workers. |
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| Subject Categories | Employment and Social Affairs | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
