EU Ministers Fail To Reach Agreement On Temp Law

by Ulrika Lomas, for LawAndTax-News.com, Brussels

05 June 2003

It emerged on Tuesday that EU ministers have failed to reach agreement over the controversial Agency Workers Directive, which would give temporary employees the same rights and salary as permanent workers after just six weeks on the job.

Representatives of UK employers, such as the CBI have warned that the additional administrative and financial burden that this would create would likely prevent British businesses from employing as many temps.

In a letter to the EU Commissioner responsible for the directive, Anna Diamantopoulou, sent as European employment ministers gathered in Luxembourg earlier this week, the CBI's director-general, Digby Jones explained that:

'The directive is a classic example of the European Commission preventing countries from developing labour markets in ways that reflect their different circumstances. Employers in some countries will be relatively unaffected because temping agencies operate differently, but the UK would be badly hit.'

Ms Diamantopoulou on Tuesday expressed her deep disappointment at the Council of Ministers' failure to reach an agreement, which was reportedly due to calls from the UK and German representatives for the qualifying period to be extended from six weeks to a year.

'Until this directive is adopted, temporary agency workers will risk remaining 'second class' workers, and we have missed a chance to push forward the Lisbon agenda for 'more and better jobs',' she argued.

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