Agency Workers - where are we now in Euro zone?
01/09/2008
By Nick Hobden, Partner and Head of Employment.
Developments in employment law seem to have a habit of grabbing the headlines, particularly where battle lines have been drawn between the unions and bodies like the CBI.
Such is the case in respect of the issue of agency workers and the extent to which they should be granted the same legal protection as "normal" employees.
Just in case the coverage in the news has not quite got to the nub of the matter for you, we thought we would cut through all the politics and deal with the cold, hard facts.
For many years now, the EU has been unable to agree on the implementation of community-wide legislation to regulate the status and treatment of agency workers. Recently, the Government, the TUC and the CBI have been in negotiations to try and agree a framework for the promotion of "fairer" treatment for agency workers. Against the back-drop of a Private Members' Bill, which was not backed by the Government, but sought to extend the rights of agency workers, political pressure was mounting on all sides to secure a deal.
On 20 May 2008, agreement was reached on the following points:
- After 12 weeks in a given job, agency workers will be entitled to equal treatment.
- Equal treatment will be defined as at least the basic working and employment conditions that would apply to the workers concerned, if they had been recruited directly to their job. But it will not cover occupational social security schemes.
This agreement appears to indicate a degree of progress (for better or for worse) towards the implementation of legislation for the greater protection of agency workers. However, there is still no absolute clarity on (a) when the new laws will come into force and (b) precisely what form they will take. Further negotiation at European level will be required and agreement still needs to be reached between all EU member states, before the picture can become completely clear. As ever, watch this space.