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British and European union leaders reacted angrily to the failure of the Council of Ministers to agree on the text of the proposed Temporary Agency Workers directive (see issue 19 page 4) at their June meeting while EU Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Anna Diamantopoulou pronounced herself 'very disappointed'. The Member States' employment ministers had been expected to reach a common position on the directive as this was a priority of the Greek presidency of the EU which finished at the end of June. The way was then to have been clear for its adoption before next year. The two main stumbling blocks were set up by countries with very different positions on the subject. A group of Member States which currently have many restrictions on temp agencies, such as Greece where until recently they were illegal, were worried about relaxing them. However another group, including the UK which has a large and almost unregulated market in temps, would not accept application of the directive from the first day of employment. There were also concerns that agencies could be prevented from being a route back to permanent jobs for the unemployed.
British trade union leaders had no doubt where the blame lay. Feeling that the UK's proposal to have the directive only apply after 12 months' employment was the sticking point, new TUC chief Brendan Barber said 'The government has sided with business interests to "scupper" the prospect of agency workers getting equal pay and basic rights in the foreseeable future'. While incoming General Secretary of the European TUC John Monks spread the responsibility for failure 'The Governments who blocked today's deal are in effect supporting an unjust two-tier workforce system in Europe, with agency workers left vulnerable and exposed to the worst employers' and called on the new Italian presidency to make the directive a priority.
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New TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber and EU Employment Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou |
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Official figures show that about 290,000 workers are temping for agencies in the UK though this is thought to be an underestimate. They tend to be younger than the general working population, to be split equally between male and female and to say that they took a temporary job because they couldn't find a permanent one. Private employers are the main recipient of temps from agencies with financial and business services employing mainly women in administration and secretarial posts while male temps gravitate to manufacturing and construction where they provide unskilled labour.
The TUC estimates that, of all UK temporary worker agencies, 47% pay less than the rate for equivalent permanent staff, 70% do not offer the same access to occupational pension schemes, 25% do not provide access to contractual sick leave to temporary workers and 14% do not give holiday pay to temporary workers. Furthermore, survey estimates suggest that up to a third of UK agencies have been in business for less than a year, and there is no requirement to be licensed or to join a professional body that might enforce a code of best practice. The proposed directive was intended to rectify this as it was based on the principle of 'providing agency workers with equal treatment over essential terms and conditions as compared with permanent workers in workplaces to which they are assigned'. Work on the directive will go on, centred around the areas of disagreement but, in the words of the commissioner 'we have missed a chance to push forward the Lisbon agenda for more and better jobs'.
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