Commission proposes agency work directive

The European Commission last month published its proposal for a directive regulating the use of temporary agency workers. This comes after last year's breakdown of negotiations between unions and employers at European level.

The draft directive proposes that temporary agency workers should enjoy the same treatment in terms of employment conditions as comparable workers in the user organisation. These rights would start to apply after six weeks.

The two main exceptions to this would be where the agency workers were employed permanently by the agency and were paid even when they were not working for an outside body, or where they were covered by a collective agreement offering adequate protection.

The draft directive now goes forward for further discussion by the Council of Ministers (representing member states) and the European Parliament.