Irish and British trade unions have jointly called on EU governments to adopt a draft directive to improve the rights of agency workers.
In a joint statement, Ictu, the British TUC and the Welsh and Scottish regional TUCs urged governments to adopt the proposed law at a meeting of EU social affairs ministers this Wednesday.
Discussions on a new directive on agency workers have taken place for a number of years, but so far agreement has been elusive. The unions claimed that a majority of member states support proposals on protection and equal treatment, "but they have been opposed by a large enough minority of EU members - including the British and Irish governments - who have prevented the adoption of a directive with teeth," the statement read.
"Almost every exposure of exploitation of vulnerable workers on these islands has had agency working at their heart. There is a perfectly legitimate role for employment agencies in providing workers with short-term availability to employers with short-term needs.
"But too many employers use the lack of legal protection for agency workers to circumvent employment protection for directly employed staff and undermine the pay and conditions by replacing permanent staff with agency staff." Ictu general secretary David Begg last week wrote to Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin for a legal framework to protect these workers. As matters stood, he wrote, agency work was "undermining all of the progress we have made at EU and national level to improve terms and conditions of workers".
Mr Begg said agency work was the most rapidly growing form of atypical work in Ireland and, compared with all other forms of employment, had the worst record for working conditions.
"Agency workers have less control over the sort of work they do and how they do it; they get less training; they have a higher rate of workplace accidents and are less informed about safety; do more shift work and have less time to complete jobs. Agency work means greater job insecurity," he wrote. When an employer hires staff on an ongoing basis through an employment agency, they are not entitled to the same terms and conditions as their colleagues. As a result, equality rights can be overcome simply by staffing through an agency, he added.
Mr Begg continued: "The growing need for a legal framework offering protection to temporary agency workers is clear. Congress is requesting that as the Minister responsible for protecting employment in Ireland that you will support the adoption of the draft directive, in particular the provisions laying down the principle of non-discrimination against temporary workers."
He added that most EU states had already enacted laws to deal with the problem.
