Temporary agency work talks extended

A meeting in April 2001 between the EU Employment and Social Policy Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou, and representatives from European-level social partner organisations has resulted in the latters' talks on the issue of temporary working being extended until May. Prospects of an agreement on the issue had earlier seemed to have collapsed.

The central European-level social partners – the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE)/European Association of Craft and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) – launched negotiations over a European-level agreement on temporary agency work in May 2000 (EU0005245N). This was the third and final subject to be discussed by the social partners under the umbrella of the European Commission's original 1995 social partner consultation on the broad issue of "atypical work". This consultation has so far yielded the 1997 agreement on part-time work (EU9706131F) and the 1999 agreement on fixed-term contracts (EU9901147F), both of which were subsequently implemented by EU Directives. However, the temporary agency work talks broke down at the end of March 2001 (EU0104206N), when it became clear that employers and unions could not agree on a number of key issues of regulation - namely the conditions of recourse to temporary agency work and equal treatment between temporary agency workers and user company employees.

At the time that it announced a stalemate in the talks in March, ETUC indicated that it would be asking the European Commission to draw up a legislative proposal regulating temporary agency work. However, the Employment and Social Policy Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou, met with the UNICE president, Georges Jacobs, and the ETUC general secretary, Emilio Gabaglio, on 6 April 2001 in order to clarify the positions of the social partners. At this meeting, Ms Diamantopoulou indicated to the partners that, although only 1.5% of the total European Union labour market is engaged in temporary agency work and the issue is therefore not very important in quantitative terms, its political significance is much greater. In particular, Ms Diamantopoulou stressed that it is necessary to guarantee flexibility and security for all kinds of work, including temporary agency work, at European level.

Consequently, the social partners agreed not to announce formally a deadlock in their talks and Ms Diamantopoulou has given the parties until May to reach an agreement.