Minister Bruton Publishes the Temporary Agency Work Bill
Richard Bruton, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation has officially published the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011. The Bill is intended to give effect to an EU Directive (Directive 2008/104/EC) on temporary agency work which requires that agency workers be treated equally, in certain respects, to people directly recruited to the same job.
The Minister’s intention is to have the Bill enacted as early as possible in the new Dail term. Upon publication, Bruton announced that the “Bill represents an important step for agency workers by guaranteeing equal treatment, in terms of pay and basic working conditions, with directly recruited workers. However in these very challenging economic times, it is also designed to minimise the impact on competitiveness in the economy and to keep costs on employment to a minimum”.
The main provisions of the Bill, which have been previously announced are as follows:
- All temporary agency workers are entitled to equal treatment in terms of pay and basic working conditions as if they were directly recruited by the hirer to the same job
- Basic working conditions will include working time, rest periods, rest breaks, night work, annual leave, public holidays, access to collective facilities
- Pay is defined as including only basic pay, shift premium, piece rates, overtime premium, unsocial hours premium and Sunday premium where a Sunday is worked and a premium is normally paid to a directly recruited employee
- Pay therefore will not include matters such as occupational pension schemes, financial participation schemes, sick pay schemes, benefit in kind or bonus payments
- The Bill, when enacted, will have retrospective effect to the transposition date of 5th December 2011.
