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Preface
Directive 2008/104/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19
November 2008 on temporary agency work 1 has been transposed, on the time
of the writing, in 20 national laws of the Member States and is still in the
implementation process in 3 Member States. However, since the expiry of the
deadline for transposition of the Directive in December 2011, the European
Commission has requested them, in the form of a ‘reasoned opinion’ under
EU infringement procedures, a notification, until 21 of December 2012, of
measures taken to implement the Directive In 3 other Member States, existing
legislation is already in compliance with the Directive.
Directive 2008/104 constitutes a major step in the regulation of temporary
agency work at EU level. In the current economic context, which is conducive
to labour market deregulation, temporary agency work is a major challenge
for Community law, as temporary agency workers remain in a precarious situation
and therefore must be given better protection. In this respect, the Directive
represents a major step forward but it is only a first step toward effective
protection of agency workers. Indeed, the protection of agency workers is not
the only aim of the Directive. It is also intended to further development of the
sector, as temporary agency work is also seen, in particular in the view of the
European Commission and the employers’ associations as a tool that could be
used for job creation (Recital 19 and Art. 2 of Directive 2008/104/EC).
The main purpose of this comparative report is to analyse the domestic implementation
provisions of Directive 2008/104/EC in the EU Member States.
It focuses on the difficulties faced during the transposition phase and the remaining
loopholes with regard to national transposition law. In addition, the
report traces back along the hard path that finally led to the adoption of a
Community Directive on temporary agency work, as this analysis is an interesting
and relevant illustration of how difficult finding a compromise text can
be at European level. Finally, the report is aimed at figuring out the questions
that are arising or likely to arise with implementation of the Directive, particularly
concerning transnational temporary agency work and the link between
temporary agency work and the posting of workers Directive (96/71/EC).
1. Remarks on the methodological approach of the survey, including the selection of countries,
are given in the Annex.
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