Download Private employment agencies: key change enablers

The role of private employment agencies in
a changing labour market
Annemarie Muntz, Eurociett President
ASSOLAVORO Workshop
9 November 2011
Rome
About Eurociett
•
Eurociett represents 35,000 companies (50,000 branches), employs
230,000 internal staff and more than 3 million agency workers on a
daily average (full time equivalents) and around 9 million a yearly
basis (headcounts)
•
Eurociett is the only association representing agency work:
– At large: brings together 30 national federations
– In its diversity: uniting 7 of the largest multinational staffing companies as well as
tens of thousands of SMEs
•
Eurociett represent the following HR activities: temporary agency
work, recruitment, interim management, executive search,
outplacement, training
•
Is the only authoritative voice representing the interests of agency
work businesses in Europe:
– Accounts for more than 90% of the total sales revenues of the industry
– Recognised as such by the EU Institutions as well as by key European stakeholders
(e.g. ETUC, BUSINESSEUROPE, social NGOs, think tanks)
– Is the employers’ official social partner within the EU sectoral social dialogue on
temporary agency work (facing UNI-Europa)
2
The new reality of labour markets
...pose new challenges
Fundamental changes...
• Globalisation
• Volatility
• Demographic evolution
• Sectoral shifts
• New attitudes to work
• Persistent high level of
unemployment (Italy 8.2%,
EU 27 9.7%)
• Segmentation in the labour
market
• Increasing mismatch between
supply and demand of skills
• Unpredictability and lack of
visibility
• Blurring the lines of
employment forms
(multiactivity)
3
How private employment agencies
can help
Governments
• Reducing unemployment and increase labour market participation
• PrEAs drive job creation even with low levels of GDP
• Better implementation of active labour market policies
• Alleviating pressure on social protection by bringing more people to (legal) work
Workers
• Access point to the labour market
• Facilitating transitions from unemployment to work, from one job to the next
• Access to training and long-life learning: better skills for labour market needs
• Freedom of choice to meet different profiles of workers
• Protection of rights
User companies
• Offer a flexible labour force that quickly adjust to production needs (seasonal,
cyclical)
• In times of economic uncertainty, companies can hire more easily thus
accelerating economic recovery
• Offer sourcing and screening to ensure that companies make the right selection
4
Agency work reduces unemployment and
illegal work: the Italian case
• PrEAs reduce unemployment and bring more people to the legal
economy
5
Maximising the PrEAs contribution
• PrEAs have an important role to play in
the labour market and they represent a
great potential
• However, agency work penetration rate
still low – in Europe is 1.7% (2010)
average, in Italy it is 0.8% (2010, defined
in full-time equivalent )
• The new report “Adapting to change”,
carried out by the Boston Consulting
Group and Eurociett analyses the link
between regulation and development of
the agency work industry
• There is need for appropriate regulation
to allow PrEAs to contribute to better
functioning labour markets
6
Appropriate regulation fosters PrEAs
development
• The index ranks countries according to how favourable the
regulatory environment is to the development of agency work
7
Labour Market Efficiency Index
• The report also develops a Labour Market Efficiency Index, which is
directly correlated with the overall competitiveness of a country: the report
shows that labour markets with higher penetration of agency work are
also more efficient
8
Recommendations:
lifting unjustified restrictions
• The agency work directive must be
implemented by 5 December 2011
Governments, together with social
partners must make a full review of
all restrictions in law and CLAs,
together with the social partners by
the deadline
• All unjustified restrictions on
temporary agency work and
discriminatory measures related to
temporary agency work labour
contracts must be lifted.
• In Italy, outdated and
disproportionate measures include:
– Reasons for use
– Maximum number of agency workers
– Maximum length of assignment
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Recommendations: updating the
relevant regulation
• Removing restrictions does not mean eliminating all relevant
regulation: licensing and certification systems can still be in place
• Appropriate regulation ensures a level playing field and quality of
services and prevents rogue providers from operating alongside
with the clean industry
– For example, well enforced authorisations systems are a valuable instrument
to filter out rogue agencies
• Appropriate regulation is needed to
avoid to mix agency work with other
forms of flexibility that are not regulated
and are not organised as a sector
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Flexible work: Let’s look at the big picture!
Agency work
Fixed-term contracts
Subcontracting & outsourcing
Call-on work
Bogus selfemployment
Undeclared work
Illegal work