European Union Adopts Legislation Mandating Equal Treatment For Temporary Agency Workers

EU Temporary Agency Work Directive

At any time, there are approximately 3 million temporary agency

workers in the member states of the European Union, about a third

of them in the UK. After six years of on and off consideration and

negotiation, the European Parliament voted last month to adopt a

Directive to enhance and protect the rights of temporary agency

workers. The measure will require countries within the EU to adopt

laws assuring that the pay and certain benefits received by

temporary agency workers are the same as those provided to regular

employees.

The avowed purpose of the Directive is to "promote

flexibility combined with employment security" ?

which the Directive refers to as "principles of

flexicurity" ? and thereby "help both workers

and employers to seize the opportunity offered by

globalisation."

Although the Directive specifies that the principle of equality

is to apply from the temporary agency worker's first day on the

assignment, an exception is permitted to allow labor and management

representatives at a national level to agree to subject temporary

agency workers to a "qualifying period" before the equal

treatment rule takes effect. This exception was specifically

intended to accommodate the UK, which had blocked the temporary

worker legislation for the past six years. Last June, labor and

management representatives in the UK agreed to a twelve-week

qualifying period, which broke the deadlock and allowed the

legislation to proceed.

In addition to equal pay, the Directive also calls for equal

treatment with respect to working time, overtime, breaks, rest

periods, night work, holidays and public holidays. These

requirements, however, may be modified where the agency workers

have a permanent employment relationship with the agency that

assigns them (including remaining on payroll between assignments)

and by negotiations between labor and management. Other working

conditions often tied to length of service, including pensions,

sick pay and "financial participation schemes" may be

excluded. Agency workers must, however, be afforded equal treatment

with respect to protections afforded pregnant women, nursing

mothers, children and young workers. Nondiscrimination policies

relating to age, beliefs, disability, ethnicity, race, religion,

sex or sexual orientation must be extended to temporary

workers.

Under the Directive, restrictions contained in national laws and

collective bargaining agreements on the types of work that can...