European industry may do deal on agency workers

New rules on the employment of temporary agency workers within the

European Union (EU) may soon be discussed by European unions and

employers.

Unions want temporary agency workers to have the same rights as

permanent workers at their place of work for most employment conditions, such as pay, hours and bonuses. But they recognise that the agencies should be responsible for some long-term employment benefits such as maternity leave or access to training. The unions also hope to negotiate limits on the use of temporary agency workers.

The issue of agency workers was specifically excluded from the last year's agreement on fixed term contract workers, which was adopted as a directive last June. However, the two sides in the negotiations, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the two employers' bodies

- UNICE (private sector) and CEEP (public sector) - agreed to consider the question again in the future.

The ETUC would now like to reopen negotiations, as would a majority of the employers. UNICE was expected to take a decision on whether to negotiate as Labour Research went to press. The UK employers' association, the CBI, is currently consulting its UK members and told Labour Research that "most of them think that, on balance, it is better to negotiate than not", although a decision on whether to support negotiations will not be made until this month.