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Temporary agency work in the European Union
Principle of equal treatment (Articles 2 and 5)
State of transposition
Article 2 of the Directive sets its aim, namely ensuring that the principle
of equal treatment provided for by Article 5 is applied to temporary agency
workers.
The legislation of some Member States provides a principle of equal treatment
with broad scope, such as that of Lithuania, where there are no specific rules
designed for this category of workers; Romania (pre-existing principle); and
Norway (will come into force in January 2013). This principle could be the
result of implementation of the Directive or a pre-existing principle.
In Belgian law, the equal pay for equal work/job principle applies independently
of the temporary nature of the assignment, except if the collective
agreement signed by the national bipartite commission for temporary agency
work (also signed by the King) foresees equivalent advantages. However, the
new bill proposed by the Belgian parliament lays down that the principle of
equal treatment applies to temporary agency workers, too. The text itself simply
transposes into Belgian law the rule of Article 5 paragraph 1 of the Directive
in terms of equal treatment, protection of pregnant women and nursing
mothers.
According to Polish law (Art. 15.1 of the Act on employment of temporary
workers) a temporary agency worker working at the user undertaking cannot
be treated less favourably concerning working conditions and other terms of
employment than employees employed directly by the user undertaking for
the same or similar job. Regarding pay, temporary workers also have the right
to equal remuneration in comparison to regular employees of a user employer
performing the same or similar job (Article 15 of the temporary employment
act). The remuneration of temporary workers is paid by an agency, but on the
basis of information given by a user employer. Provisions on remuneration
regulation or collective agreements covering a user employer stipulating that
remuneration of temporary workers is lower are unacceptable. In practice, it
may happen that temporary workers perform such jobs that cannot be compared
to any others performed by regular workers at an establishment and
therefore obtain lower remuneration than that which would have been proposed
to a regular employee.
In Slovenia, the labour market regulation act lays down that the temporary
work agency acting as employer has to ensure the worker all the rights arising
from employment that the worker is entitled to in accordance with regulations
governing employment relationships. This is meant to guarantee equal
treatment. The user undertaking also has to comply with those regulations
during the assignment.
In Lithuania, the principle of equal treatment is vaguely formulated and leads
to practical difficulties, for example, to define the salary a temporary agency
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