BMW agrees to limit use of agency workers

German car maker BMW has agreed with the union IG Metall that it will take on 3,000 new permanent employees, largely drawn from its existing agency workers.

The deal is one of first fruits of the agreement reached for the whole of the metalworking industry in May, under which agency workers must be taken on as permanent staff once they have been employed for two years (see Workplace Report, June 2012, page 8).

BMW has now accepted that in future the no more than 8% of its workforce can be agency staff, whereas, according to the union, the proportion in the past had been between 17% and 20%.