Inside View from Ireland: Agency Work in Ireland

ALTHOUGH I WOULD NOT normally endorse a union's perspective as the one worth following, there are dozens of Poles in my neighbourhood who can relate experiences close to the one I remember while pulling my weight at the bottom of the Irish wage table. An issue now in front of many commentators concerns how Ireland treats temporary workers. I now agree with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions on the matter and want to give over the rest of this post to Esther Lynch and her conclusion that Ireland needs to replace its 1970s agency work legislation.

From Esther Lynch, Legislation and Social Affairs Officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions:

Agency workers are among the most discriminated workers in the country and we need better employment laws to protect them.

The existing legislation regulating agency work is hopelessly out of date. Which isn't that surprising because it was introduced in the 1970s, when agency work was a relatively rare form of employment, then it was essentially the preserve of the office temp.

Agency work is no longer about the temporary filling of posts to cover for absences or excess demand. Increasingly, agency work is the way in which companies permanently staff large parts of their workforce.

Agency work is not as rewarding as agencies would have us all believe.

Apart from the lack of employment security, workplace surveys show that agency workers are paid less per hour than comparable permanent staff. They also fare far worse when it comes to other much-needed entitlements such as sick pay and occupational pensions.

This has far-reaching consequences not only for the worker concerned but also for the rest of the workforce. As more and more employers turn to agency work as a means to pay workers less and avoid responsibilities to their workers, it puts cost pressures on other, more decent employers and it's clear that we need action if we are to halt a race to the bottom.

All other EU members states, that is everywhere except Britain and Hungary, have dealt with this problem by introducing laws which grant equality between agency workers and comparable permanent staff.

Referred to as the non-discrimination principle, the overwhelming majority of laws around Europe provide that agency workers must receive equal pay, terms and conditions as comparable permanent employees.

Not having this type of protection in place means that other rights are undermined.

Take for example women's rights. Women's hard-won employment equality rights can be easily got around by employers staffing the female part of their workforce through employment agencies.

Hard to believe it's that simple--we have already lost gender and race discrimination cases because of this ridiculous loophole.

It doesn't stop there. Unscrupulous employment agencies facilitate employers' desires to discriminate in who they hire. Agencies ensure that only the right "type" of person is sent for a job.

I am sure that there are very few cases where an employer will pointedly and overtly state, for example, "Don't send me older workers."

Rather, the discrimination is practised in a more subtle way by the agency "profiling" out unsuitable workers. Agencies, who want to keep their contracts, simply won't send anyone over a certain age to their clients. Decent agencies who play by the rules and refuse to get involved in this type of practise are being severely disadvantaged because of the lack of proper regulation.

Another way the law is failing agency workers is on the essential question of who is their legal employer? Is it the employer or the agency?

As often as not, agency workers seeking their rights are faced with the outrageous situation where neither the employer nor the agency will accept that they are the employer. Often, the law is less than certain on this question, relying on a formula of who pays the wages.

This situation has been made even more complicated and frustrating as workers may be paid by agencies based outside the jurisdiction or operating solely on the internet. This makes it almost impossible to successfully pursue claims.

This existing licensing scheme is a joke. It is not taken seriously and it does nothing to prevent cowboy agencies making illegal deductions from workers' wages.

Such an adverse situation cannot be tolerated. We cannot continue with such antiquated, inadequate laws. New legislation is needed to combat the undesireable effects of modern-day agency work.

First and foremost, the new law needs to guarantee equal pay and treatment for agency workers. Britain has recently stated that it is considering introducing this entitlement for agency workers after a year with a firm.

While an entitlement to equal pay after a one-year period would be better than the current situation--which is never--I don't think that agencies and employers would be able to resist the temptation to simply move the agency worker towards the end of his or her year. So it would be more in line with the rest of Europe for Ireland to adopt an entitlement after a maximum six-week period.

Finally, given that the rights we are campaigning for are already in place across the EU, it is not credible that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is claiming that the EU Commission is prohibiting the minister from introducing these rights for agency workers in Ireland.

It is time for the messing to stop.