I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I am pleased to have an opportunity to discuss this Labour Party Bill which attempts to highlight an important issue that requires Government attention. Temporary agency work has been the most rapidly growing form of atypical work in the EU over the past 20 years. The use of temporary agency workers has increased fivefold in Denmark, Italy, Spain and Sweden and has at least doubled in most other countries according to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, which is based in Dublin. Like other Senators, I found it difficult to get exact statistics for Ireland. The foundation estimates that in 2000, 2% of workers in the 15 EU member states at the time were on temporary agency contracts. It believes that approximately 6 million people are on the books of employment agencies in any given year. 

This form of work is also on the increase in the new EU member states, although few statistics are available. Slovenia, for example, passed legislation to authorise temporary work agencies in 1998, with new measures to protect workers in 2003. Since the enlargement of the EU in May 2004, more opportunities for temporary agency workers from the new member states have opened up in the 15 pre-accession member states. Therefore, we need to establish minimum standards if we are to avoid the undercutting of pay and working conditions. 

An increasing number of companies are using temporary agency work to cut costs and increase flexibility by allowing them to adjust their staffing levels at short notice. Agencies help employers to find workers with specific skills when they want them while avoiding recruitment and administration expenses. According to the International Confederation of Temporary Work Businesses, companies most often use temporary agency workers to fill in for staff absences. Such arrangements can also have benefits for individuals, enabling them to work flexibly when they want to or gain experience in a specific sector. Young people under the age of 25 make up the largest category of temporary agency workers. Overall, research shows that a higher proportion of temporary agency workers are unhappy with their jobs and conditions than permanent staff. Many employees do not choose this way of working and would prefer secure employment. 

While the manner in which temporary staff move frequently from one workplace to another means it is not easy to secure collective representation rights, trade unions have concluded national deals in a number of pre-enlargement member states, including the Netherlands, Sweden, Belgium, France and Spain. However, the importance of union representation is underscored by the unions because the potential for the exploitation of vulnerable migrant workers and the parallel undermining of well established standards in the workplace through the use of temporary agency workers has been very evident for some time.  

Compared with all other forms of employment, temporary agency work has the worst record for working conditions judged on a number of indicators, including repetitive labour, the supply of information to employees about workplace risks and control over the kind of work done and how it is done. Research shows that agency workers get less training than others, that they have a higher rate of workplace accidents, that they are less well informed about safety, that they do more shift work and that they are given less time to complete jobs. 

In most countries, agency work means greater job insecurity. In France, for example, the average assignment lasts only two weeks. Senator Donohoe referred to some examples of temporary agency workers earning higher rates than permanent staff—for example, agency nurses in Scandinavia. However, most evidence points to lower wages for similar work coupled with exclusion from bonuses and benefits awarded to other employees. Agency workers are also deprived of the typical rights to which other workers are entitled, such as maternity rights, holiday pay, sick pay and even overtime pay. 

The growing need for an EU-wide legal framework which offers protection to temporary agency workers is clear. The European Commission responded to this need in 2002 by proposing a directive laying down the principle of non-discrimination against temporary workers and aiming to set minimum EU-wide standards and to create a level playing field for companies in different member states. The principles laid down by the Commission state that a temporary agency worker may not be treated less favourably in terms of basic working conditions, that is, working time, rest periods, holiday pay, etc., than a permanent member of staff doing a comparable job in the same firm. However, to accommodate national laws and practices, it also allowed for exceptions to be made where workers have a permanent contract with an agency or where collective agreements provide adequate protection. 

Since 2002, despite the efforts of the European Commission, the opposition of a small number of member state governments has meant that no progress has been made in this crucial area. Unfortunately, the Government has been one of those which have failed to reach agreement on this proposed directive. Attempts to break the deadlock by the Finnish EU Presidency between July and December 2006 and, more recently, by the Portuguese EU Presidency in December 2007 were unsuccessful. It would be fair to say there is stalemate and no progress has been made. 

I listened to the Minister of State’s response and accept he made the case that the Bill is premature given that the social partners are discussing and negotiating on this issue as part of their pay talks. While I accept Senator’s Norris’s point that we are legislators, that the social partners are citizens and that we are entitled to legislate for them, the social partners are proactively discussing and negotiating on this issue. I am happy to accept the Government’s bona fides on this but if Ireland continues to drag its heels in approving and reaching agreement on the temporary agency workers directive at EU level, it will be showing itself in a very poor light. Along with the UK, we will gain a reputation of being extremely neo-liberal in our approach to trying to create the most flexible labour market conditions possible in the European Union at the expense of workers. That would be very unfortunate. 

I am a member of Oireachtas Joint Committee on European Affairs and ICTU spoke to us about the Lisbon treaty. David Begg was slow to indicate that ICTU would support the treaty. It has many reservations about developments in the European Union and many of them relate to the undermining of long established rights and protections for workers. It is up to member state governments to get the balance right. Member states have a responsibility to ensure their labour markets remain flexible and that they are notover-regulated in a way which would deter investment or the creation of new employment. They must, however, protect the rights and interests of workers. Unfortunately, the European Union’s reputation of providing a good model of a social Europe is being undermined. 

This Bill has highlighted the issue which has been the issue of a lengthy debate in the Dáil. The onus is on the Government to bring the negotiations on the EU directive to a conclusion and to use our very considerable negotiating skills to reach a satisfactory conclusion. By supporting the directive, we are recognising that we have created a single market for companies, employers and workers. There is a greater degree of mobility among the workers and citizens of EU member states. To respond to that, we must set down these minimum levels of protection for agency and temporary workers.

I support the spirit of the Labour Party Bill and call on the Government to progress the negotiations at EU level and to support an EU-wide directive to protect these workers.

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Seanad Speeches by Deirdre