The National Recruitment Federation, the umbrella body for recruitment agencies in Ireland has for the past number of years flagged the potential turmoil that the AWD could bring to the temporary agency worker market in Ireland. The NRF has successfully convinced the relevant Govt departments on the necessity to maintain maximum flexibility in the application of this EU legislation.
Unfortunately, the Social Partners do not appreciate the key role that recruitment agencies play in delivering flexible staffing solutions to a large number of Public Sector and Private Sector organizations working in the Irish economy. This lack of appreciation is manifested by their refusal to agree to a derogation period before “equal treatment” kicks in for the agency worker. The UK social partners have agreed to a 12 week derogation period, which is probably shorter that we would like in Ireland, but based on the fact that we currently have a Zero week derogation period, 12 weeks would be great.
So, when the Minister finally transposes the legislation, what will happen to the temporary agency worker marketplace in Ireland ? I would argue that nothing needs to change as long as long as a couple of simple steps are incorporated into the process.
Establish in the legislation that equality of treatment cannot apply until a time period equal to the probationary period of the equivalent permanent position has expired. If the legislation does not incorporate this exemption, you could have the inequitable position where a temporary agency worker had preferential treatment to an employee who was in a permanent position but had not yet completed their probationary period.
Having confirmed in the legislation that a clear time period must elapse before equal treatment commences, recruitment agencies could simply establish a number of companies and transfer the temporary agency workers from company A to company B before the expiry of the equality time period. This would be a win-win situation for all parties because it is worth remembering that agency workers choose agency work as a lifestyle choice to complement the flexible requirement of their daily work/ life balance.