Opening session at Nyon | A concerted global drive to improve the conditions of millions of workers in the Temporary Work Agency sector was launched in Nyon, Switzerland on 8 May.
Unions from Africa, Asia, the Americas and Europe attended the first meeting of UNI Temporary Work Agencies global union and looked at building trade union power in an industry that is fast growing as traditional, permanent jobs disappear in management drives for “flexibility”.
Globally the industry employs nearly a million people in its placement work and posts well over ten million people to client companies. It’s dominated by 20 top companies, but there are no fewer than 75,000 agencies around the world.
A key union target is winning equality of treatment for temporary workers with permanent colleagues in the companies where they are placed. |
We have a huge job to do - we have to clean up this industry with a basis of global labour standards,” UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings told the opening session in Nyon.“
“We need a global dialogue with the big players in this industry to ensure union rights and recognition, to discuss licensing and ethics and a joint move against human trafficking. We also don’t want temporary workers used as strike breakers.”
UNI-Europa is in dialogue with Eurociett - that represents the big temp agencies - to see if it’s possible to reach agreement on basic principles for the industry (including equal treatment in pay and conditions) and get around the continuing political deadlock over a European directive for temporary work agency workers.
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Toshio Tonouchi, UI Zensen Japan | UNI's Alke Boessiger with Kevin Kistler and
Richard Lanigan, OPEIU USA |
The UK Labour government has led opposition to the directive since 2002 and has minimal regulation of the Temporary Work industry, reported Sally Bridge from UK affiliate CWU.
Her union has organised 5,000 agency workers placed in telecom companies like BT - often in call centres. With other UK unions like Unite, the CWU has been running a “EuroTrashed” campaign against the government’s blocking of the directive and is making progress with political allies to press for better treatment for agency workers.
Union figures in Britain show that average gross pay for temp workers is £301 compared to £431 for permanent workers and - like many temp workers elsewhere – they don’t have equivalent benefits. “It’s a myth that agency workers earn more than permanent workers. They also have no job security, no unfair dismissal rights, no redundancy rights and they are the first to go in downsizing,” said Sally.
“We have been trashed by a British government that has been actively blocking legislation in Brussels. This is a social issue, everybody in Britain knows someone who works through a temp agency. These are workers that deserve union representation - the more we raise the profile then the greater opportunity we have to bring about improvements for agency workers.”
In the UK 4.5% of jobs are filled through temp agencies - the highest in Europe and well above the European average of 1.8% and the global average of 2%.
British unions want equal treatment for temp workers from day one in their placement - the UK employers’ group CBI wants a year’s waiting time before qualifying for equal benefits (so ruling out 70% of temp workers from coverage).
It’s a youth issue with your average agency worker aged just 25, said Alke Boessiger who heads UNI’s Temporary Work Agency department. “If we are serious as unions about organising young workers then this is an industry we have to look at seriously.”
She told the 40 participants that the name is often different - placed workers, temporary workers, posted workers, despatched workers, leased workers, agency workers and contract workers - but the issues they face are the same.
The meeting proceeded on a definition of agency staff - to cover the full time job placers - and agency workers - to cover those placed in client companies.
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Participants getting to know each other | Sally Bridge, CWU UK |
In Japan UI Zensen has launched what is probably the world’s first dedicated union for temp agency staff and workers - JSGU, reported Toshio Tonouchi.
There are 1,200,000 temp workers in Japan - many of whom fall through a union net that is very much based on companies. Since the government de-regulated more areas of the economy in 2004, temp agency work has grown fast.
The new union already has 42,000 members – mainly in Goodwill and Takagi Kanyo – among both the full time staff of the agencies and the despatched workers.
“We need higher membership in this growing sector and our aim is national level consultation with employers and winning collective agreements for these workers,” said Toshio.
Top table: Alke Boessiger UNI, John Myers ILO,
Denis Pennel CIETT, Annemarie Muntz Eurociett | “We want the employers to agree to the principle of equal treatment across Europe, implemented through collective agreements at national level or by a statutory route,” said UNI-Europa Regional Secretary Bernadette Ségol. Unions through UNI-Europa are busy hammering out a draft for negotiations with Eurociett.
“Temporary Work Agency workers should not replace permanent workers or undermine the conditions of ordinary workers,” said UNI-Europa’s Fabrice Warneck. |
He spotlighted the concentration of young people in temp working. “Do all young people have to go through temporary work in order to get a permanent job?” he asked. He also warned that - without proper training - “agency workers are the first victims of accidents at work”.
Sally Bridge challenged the general distinction between temporary and permanent workers. “These are not just temporary workers. We have members who have been employed through temporary work agencies for more than ten years - so they have replaced the permanent workers.”
Then International Labour Organisation’s John Myers reported on plans for a meeting of governments, employer and union organisations in October next year to discuss a campaign to win more signatories to ILO Convention 181 on Temporary Work Agencies.
The temp agencies provide about 2% of the global labour force and a turnover of 230bn euro, said Denis Pennel, Managing Director of the global employers’ organisation Ciett. The agency industry is specific and the “agency remains the employer of the worker”. Their principles respect laws, collective agreements and charge no fees to job seekers.
Client companies use the agencies to cope with staff turnover, meet seasonal demands and economic cycles, he said. Some also use temp employment as a pre-selection process for permanent work.
“We provide people with real jobs, a stepping stone to a permanent job and contribute to meeting the Lisbon objectives,” said Annemarie Muntz, President of Eurociett. Most people come to the temp agencies from unemployment, many are young and many are migrants, she told the meeting.
The employers want to bring down barriers to temp work in the public sector - effectively banned in a number of EU countries.
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UNI Temporary Work Agencies:
http://www.uniglobalunion.org/twa - Contact
UNI global union:
http://www.uniglobalunion.org - Contact |