Full text - European Trade Union Institute (ETUI)

Temporary agency work in the European Union
to a hirer. It is because of this pay, when the worker is not assigned, that the
Regulations provide for the derogation from equal treatment on pay. Temporary
work agencies and hirers must not structure arrangements in a way that
deprives agency workers of the protection provided by pay between assignments.
This could put them at risk of a legal challenge. The TUC is already
seeing a number of companies using the ‘Swedish Derogation’ to avoid the
regulations.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that this issue is still under discussion in Belgium,
but that in the Bulgarian implementation law of 2012, no provisions
foresees any restrictive measures for avoiding violations in the form of successive
(chain) assignments of temporary agency workers/employees in user
undertakings. Concerns may also arise in Spain where it has been reported
that previous legislation has been amended to lift restrictions related to successive
assignments and in Germany, where the transposition measures include
temporary assignments without any definition, leading to controversial
interpretations of how to implement this measure.
Access to employment, collective facilities and
vocational training (Article 6)
Article 6 sets out five important rules: (i) information of agency workers about
vacant posts in the user undertaking, (ii) the possibility for them to be hired
by the user after their assignment, (iii) a prohibition on charging them a fee,
(iv) equal access to amenities and collective facilities and (v) training.
In Belgium, following the transposition measures, temporary agency workers
will have access in the same manner as permanent employees to the services
of the company, unless different treatment can be justified (use of canteens,
childcare and transport facilities). The bill proposed by the government on 18
April 2012 is more or less a copy/paste of the Directive into the 1987 Act. In
Sweden and Austria, national (draft) legislation has also taken over the wording
of the Directive.
In contrast, Article 6 still needs to be implemented in the Netherlands and in
Portugal. In Luxembourg, domestic legislation has to be amended to comply
with Art. 6-1, 6-3 and 6-5 in order (i) to allow access for temporary agency
workers to information on any vacant posts in the user undertaking, provided
by a general announcement in a suitable place in the undertaking for which,
and under whose supervision, temporary agency workers are engaged; (ii)
to ensure that workers are not charged any fees in exchange for arranging
for them to be recruited by a user undertaking, or for concluding a contract
of employment or an employment relationship with a user undertaking after
carrying out an assignment in that undertaking; and (iii) to ensure suitable
measures and promote dialogue between the social partners in order
to (a) improve temporary agency workers’ access to training and child-care
facilities in temporary work agencies, even in the periods between their assignments,
to enhance their career development and employability; and (b)
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