Recruitment experts oppose EU directive

Irish recruitment experts were urged this morning to join their counterparts from the UK, Germany and Denmark and lobby against the proposed EU Temporary Agency Workers Directive.

The Directive was strongly criticised at an employment conference in Dublin this morning which was jointly hosted by RecruitIreland.com and Ronan Daly Jermyn Solicitors and attended by almost 150 representatives from the recruitment sector in Ireland.

Delegates were told that the directive, if implemented in its current form, will have significant implications for both indigenous and foreign owned firms active in this country and across the EU.

The agency work industry accounted for 11% of total job creation across the EU between 1996 and 1998 and employed over 7 million workers in 2001.

Additionally, 17% of work carried out using agency workers would not have been undertaken by the employing company had the agency workers not been available.

The total tax contribution derived from Private Employment Agencies in 2002 was approximately €36bn.

According to Jennifer Cashman, a specialist in employment law with Ronan Daly Jermyn Solicitors, the proposed directive means that all workers employed through Temping Agencies must be treated as if they were permanently employed directly by the end Company after just 6 weeks of

employment.

This applies to all benefits of employment, holiday and sick pay, redundancy and any other benefit enjoyed by employees of the end-company.

Ms Cashman said: "The reality is that this measure will reduce flexibility in the workplace considerably and will mean that firms will be much less inclined to use agency workers."

Tom Crosbie, Managing Director of RecruitIreland.com said: "The Directive will have an impact on our competitiveness if it is implemented in its current form and could hinder future investment by multinationals in Ireland pushing them instead towards countries and economic regions with less restrictive employment legislation."