ESPHCA Council Fails To Reach Agreement on Temporary Work
Date: 4-6-2003
During the second day of its two-day meeting (2/3 June 2003), the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (ESPHCA) Council failed to reach political agreement on the draft Directive on Temporary Agency Work. The 2003 Spring European Council set a deadline of the end of year for the final adoption of the Directive and the Greek Council Presidency had set the adoption of a Common Position as a priority during its term of office. Nevertheless, Ministers were unable to agree on a Common Position at the meeting and accepted that "fundamental differences remained". However, work on the dossier is to be continued on the basis of the following three parameters for a balanced political compromise:
- how to address the need for a specific derogation with a view to fostering the insertion of the unemployed into the labour market (article 1);
- reviewing and possibly removing restrictions to temporary agency work (article 4);
- the nature of the exemption from the principle of equal treatment and the length of the "qualifying period" (article 5(4)/11(3) new).
Commenting on the outcome of the ESPHCA Council meeting, Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner, Anna Diamantopoulou expressed her "deep disappointment" in the failure to reach agreement. She said: "There is no objective reason why the Council could not have reached political agreement on this directive today. I am deeply disappointed, particularly given the long, hard hours which the Presidency and Member States have devoted to clearing the way for agreement. 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'".
The failure of the Council was also condemned by the new ETUC General Secretary, John Monks. In a statement he said "Agency workers have been badly let down. The Governments who blocked today's deal are in effect supporting an unjust two-tier workforce system in Europe, with agency workers left vulnerable and exposed to the worst employers. I call on the Italian Government to remedy today's failure as a matter of priority during its Presidency.