Temporary Agency Workers

Employment Law – New Proposed Directive – Temporary Agency Workers

An amended proposal relating to the Temporary Workers Directive has recently been published following the meeting of the EU employment ministers. The meeting occurred on 9 and 10 June 2008.

During the meeting, the EU employment ministers came to a political agreement on the Temporary Workers Directive. This means that the EU Council has been able to publish the proposed wording that will appear in the directive.

The purpose of the proposed Directive would be to give temporary agency workers the right to be treated in the same way as regular employees of a client. This would mean that upon being assigned to a client, the temporary agency workers would be deemed the same as the client's workers from the beginning of their assignment.

However, it should be noted that Member States may elect to implement this in slightly different ways, for example by applying a qualifying period agreed by social partners. For the UK, the implementation of this Directive should reflect the recent agreement between the Government, CBI and TUC on the fact that there should be a twelve-week qualifying period.

This proposed Directive is still to be fully confirmed, as it shall now return for a second reading by the European Parliament at the end of 2008.

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© RT COOPERS, 2008. This Briefing Note does not provide a comprehensive or complete statement of the law relating to the issues discussed nor does it constitute legal advice. It is intended only to highlight general issues. Specialist legal advice should always be sought in relation to particular circumstances.