9 July, 2008
Contents:
• ICEM Places Focus on Contract and Agency Labour for Decent Work Day
• European Directive on Agency Work Gets Closer to Passage
• Irish Labour Movement Welcomes EU Directive on Agency Work
• Equal Pay for All Workers Gains Ground in Germany
• Interview with Sérgio Novais, National Chemical Confederation of Brazil and ICEM Vice President, Latin America/Caribbean Region
• Interview with Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, General Secretary, Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forbund)
• Peru Enacts New Contract Labour Law Assuring Rights
• Positive Developments for Agency Workers in Thailand
• Minimum Wage Bill for Agency Workers Passes Major Hurdle in New Zealand
• Pakistani Food Workers Challenge Unilever’s Casualisation
• UNI-Europa Signs Accord with Temp Work Association; UNI Renews Global Agreement with Danish Firm
ICEM Places Focus on Contract and Agency Labour for Decent Work Day
At the ICEM’s World Congress in Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2007, a resolution was adopted in support of the World Day for Decent Work. This global day of action and mobilisation – 7 October 2008 – is organised by the Decent Work, Decent Life campaign, led by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), the Council of Global Unions, Solidar, the Global Progressive Forum, Social Alert International, and the European Trade Union Confederation.
ICEM has a special interest in Decent Work, particularly in view of the Global Union Federation’s strong work over the past several years on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL). For this reason, the ICEM is focusing its 7 October action day events, and the period to follow, on CAL. ICEM is also working together with the other Global Union Federations, through the Council of Global Unions, on the CAL issue.
As part of ICEM’s overall campaign, we will intensify our activities on this date to ensure equal rights and equal treatment for temporary and agency workers. The ICEM will use the Global Day of Action as the start of a global push to organise contract and agency workers. This campaign will run until December 2008.
Affiliates will be asked to give special attention to contract and agency workers during this period, as well as to give priority to the issue as a whole.
Campaign materials will be published to help affiliates address the issue at local, national, and international levels. With this special InBrief newsletter, we would also like to call your attention to the issue of Contract and Agency Labour globally, as well as also within particular work sectors. The aim of distribution the information is to share and to learn from experiences.
In the upcoming months, further useful materials will be published and distributed, and we will also send you information on how you and your union can become active on this issue as the 7 October World Day of Action arrives.
Activities that affiliates can consider doing, include:
• Issuing press communications, highlighting 7 October as a the start of a campaign on organising contract and agency labour workers
• Active distribution of the ICEM campaign material
• Organising workshops with members discussing the CAL issue, and coming up with union responses
• Organising public debates on CAL
• Go out and start organising campaigns that specifically target contract and agency workers.
The ICEM also continues to call on all its affiliates, and their members, in both developing and developed countries, to sign the call to action at http://www.decentwork.org.
In addition, in the last several weeks, the ICEM has invited all affiliates to fill in an online survey. Through this survey, we aim to gather information on CAL in your industrial sectors and countries. Is CAL a growing phenomenon? How does your union respond? What means and methods are you using to organise temporary workers? The answers will give us valuable information – information to inform other affiliates on best practices and successful strategies used by fellow unions.
Many of you have already filled in this survey, and we would like to ask others who have not, to do so in the near future. If you have not received an invitation to participate in the survey, please send an e-mail to [email protected].
European Directive on Agency Work Gets Closer to Passage
Despite earlier opposition by Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Poland, and the UK, which have stubbornly opposed any compromise agreement for the past five years, the EU’s Employment and Social Affairs Council agreed on 10 June 2008 to a draft Directive on Temporary Agency Workers.
Temporary agency work has continued to swell, there can be no denying that. In Denmark, Italy, Spain, and Sweden, for example, it has increased five fold over the past 20 years. In most other EU nations, it has at least doubled in recent years. Each year, some six million workers in the EU are newly registered with agencies.
And in the new member states, it is crucial that minimum employment regulations are established to avoid undercutting already set standards in pay and working conditions.
More and more, companies are utilising temporary agency workers to cut costs and to increase flexibility, such as allowing them to adjust staffing needs at short notice.
Employers can find workers with specific skills, when and as needed, without recruitment expenses, or when restructurings or downsizing occurs.
In general, agency workers tend to be less satisfied with their jobs and work conditions than permanent staff. They also tend to have less control over their work, receive less training, have higher accident rates, and perform more shift work than permanent workers. Mostly, they get lower wages for similar work, and are excluded from bonuses and benefits. They also have less job security.
The EU Directive would set minimum European-wide standards that create a level playing field for all companies in all member-states. The Directive is also aimed at stimulating the EU as a knowledge-based economy.
The draft Directive currently states that temporary agency workers must not be treated less favourably regarding basic work conditions (pay, working time, rest periods, holidays, etc.) than permanent workers doing “comparable” work, a principle that would apply as of day 1.
Exceptions would be permitted to this principle where the social partners come to an agreement at the national level, as recently happened in the UK, for example, where agency workes are to get equal treatment after 12 weeks, six more than what is proposed in the EU Directive.
Irish Labour Movement Welcomes EU Directive on Agency Work
General President Jack O’Connor of Ireland’s Services, Industrial, Professional, and Technical Union (SIPTU) welcomed the new EU Directive on Agency Work.
In a statement, he said, “It will improve people’s rights at work in Ireland. Indeed, in the absence of the EU, working conditions in Ireland would still be very primitive. This decision will begin the process of alleviating the plight of tens of thousands of our most vulnerable workers.”
Legislation in Ireland to regulate the use of temporary agency workers has been opposed for years by employers. Although not yet fully adopted, once ratified by the European Parliament, the Directive must be implemented through national legislation within three years. It has thus given a considerable push to people’s rights at work in Ireland.
The recent Irish referendum rejecting the Lisbon Treaty would appear to have no effect on the Directive, since existing treaties already cover the details of implementation.
Equal Pay for All Workers Gains Ground in Germany
Manpower, the second largest employment agency in the world, has announced the creation of a “Manpower Equaltreatment” subsidiary in Germany.
Thomas Reitz, the head of Manpower-Germany explains: “We have recently set up this new subsidiary, Manpower Equaltreatment Gmbh, in which temporary workers will be paid at the same level as the permanent workers of the companies where they work. Other conditions and benefits will also be similar.”
In doing this, Manpower has given a powerful signal to employers everywhere that the climate regarding temporary work is changing.
“We want to remain attractive as an agency, and there is a demand for these kinds of solutions,” continued Reitz.
Some collective work agreements within Germany’s major industrial enterprises like Audi, BMW, and Airbus already call for temporary and permanent staff to have similar pay and conditions.
Calls for the “equal pay for equal work” motto in all German enterprises are reinforced by a recent campaign by ICEM affiliate IGBCE and other major trade unions in Germany, which is putting pressure on companies to grant equal pay to temporary workers.
Manpower estimates that its new Manpower Equaltreatment subsidiary will employ several thousands of temp agency workers in the next few years. It will provide both high-skilled specialty staff and also less-skilled workers. “Companies prefer good agency workers,” concluded Thomas Reitz, (because) they hope they later become permanent staff, so they need a good pool of workers to choose from.
Interview with Sérgio Novais, National Chemical Confederation of Brazil and ICEM Vice President, Latin America/Caribbean Region
What has been the impact of Contract and Agency Labour Work in Brazil and Latin America?
The impact of outsourcing is felt in all sectors in Latin America. Of those sectors covered by the ICEM, it is probably the energy sector which has been hit hardest because of the mass privatisations in the 1990s. We are currently doing a study on the situation of contract workers in the energy sector to get more and better data on the present situation.
Subcontracting is everywhere. It is not limited to catering, or security, or transportation. It now goes right to the core of business in most companies. Oil companies subcontract maintenance, development, even production in the refineries. And, of course, at many companies, contract workers are involved in drilling and on offshore platforms.
Has outsourcing caused a general trend of reduction in the salaries and benefits of permanent workers?
Outsourcing has led to a drastic reduction of salaries and in secondary benefits, since many workers go uncovered by collective agreements. Another aspect is health and security, in spite of the fact that, on paper, when we are engaged in dialogue with the bigger companies, everything appears fine. But in reality, we find many situations where there is a lack of proper training and adequate equipment. The proof comes in the fact that the highest number of fatalities, particularly in the energy sector, occurs among contract workers.
Are contract or agency workers more difficult to reach in terms of organizing?
The increase of contract and agency workers on any particular job makes the work of unions very difficult. When jobs are outsourced, you inevitably lose a number of full-time, permanent workers. This, in turn, makes negotiations that much more difficult. And then there also is the difficulty to contact and gain access to contract workers. And when you do, they are not always interested in joining an organisation that enters into a dialogue and negotiate with their company.
So, it places pressure on representation and that, in turn, places a diminished capacity to mobilize contract or agency workers toward the union. And in some cases, at least in Brazil, it makes trouble for the central unions, because workers might be represented by other unions who negotiate at different times with different agendas.
What is it like dealing with a primary company over subcontracting? What kind of legal challenges does it present?
Brazil is one of the countries where a primary company can be held legally responsible for the violation of labor laws by a subcontracting company. And indeed, sometimes primary employers are taken to court over infractions by a subcontractor. But this always occurs after an accident, or after an instance of polluting has taken place, or after a labour infraction has occurred. Further, it is only case by case, so it doesn’t solve the bigger problem of regulating and making an employer accountable on the front end.
What would you say on networking between unions, or sharing information on contracting practices? How important is that for success?
The consequences of the increase in use of contract and agency labour, and outsourcing in general, can be managed better if unions start cooperating. Creating national and international networks is important. We are making good progress with our regional BASF company network of labour unions, an ICEM network.
The company has agreed that contract work is an important subject for permanent social dialogue. Imagine, the company recently admitted that even they didn’t know the number of contract workers present at any particular chemical worksite. We are now in a position where we are able to monitor the situation, learn from the monitoring, and hopefully pass this on to other BASF unions worldwide. It has also vastly improved our discussions with this particular company.
There has been a steep reduction in contract workers at Petrobras due to union action. Can you explain what was done?
This is another good example. Being a state-owned company, Petrobras, as a primary employer, was relatively easy to engage, particularly with a change of government in Brazil. It has led to better relations between the company management and the FUP, the national oilworkers’ federation. In a period of six years, this has resulted in a reduction of the ratio of contract workers to Petrobras workers from 4-to-1 to 2.2-to1. However, we’re not there yet. There are still many, many contract workers on oil rigs.
What are the next steps in Brazil regarding contract and agency labour?
Here in Brazil, we must find a way to get legislation adopted which enables contract workers to be represented by the majority union on any give jobsite. However, it is not likely this will happen with the current Parliament. Many Latin American governments have recently adopted legislation in one form or another on contract labour. The best legislation might be in Argentina. There, the Federación Argentina Sindical del Petróleo y Gas Privados managed to use it to negotiate that all contract workers are covered by the collective agreement.
What can you tell us about the upcoming Day in Latin America for Contractors?
On 28 July, we will campaign throughout Latin America to call for attention to the health and safety risks involved with subcontracting. The date has been chosen as a memorial to the 200 contract workers who lost their lives in Colombia while constructing a hydroelectric dam 25 years ago on this day. We will use this day as a regional call to all trade unions and trade union networks to include contract work in their agendas for dialogue and negotiation with the different companies.
Interview with Jørgen Juul Rasmussen, General Secretary, Danish Union of Electricians (Dansk El-Forbund)
What is your experience with contract and agency labour in Denmark?
Firstly, the Danish Trade Unions are organised by trade. This means, for example, that you can have five different trade unions representing the employees in a power plant. The Danish Union of Electricians organises all skilled electrical workers in Denmark. We have collective agreements with most companies in the country, with some dating back to early in the 20th century.
Secondly, contract and agency work is still a growing phenomenon in Denmark. Our union has three strategies for dealing with the issue. First of all, we try to agree on equal rights and equal pay for agency workers in the collective agreements. Already 10 or 15 years ago, we agreed on an appendix in the largest collective agreement between Danish Industries (DI) and CO-Industry, covering 9 unions, with regard to agency workers that are employed in blue-collar jobs. Through this appendix, agency workers in power plants receive the same rights and benefits as their permanent colleagues from day one.
This appended agreement, unfortunately, only covers the blue-collar workers, not white- collar, or professional or technical workers. This is something we are still fighting for, and we hope that the new European Directive on Agency Work will help in this. Even though blue-collar agency workers have, at present, equal rights from day one, there still are some problems. Many of the social rights, such as the right to full sick pay, or the right to training and education, call for a minimum employment period of 6 or 9 months. Agency workers often don’t work long enough to get that far.
What is your union’s experience on how employers handle their responsibilities regarding agency workers?
Danish employers try hard to find different ways to ignore these agreements. A few years ago, for example, we saw a sudden increase in the use of electricians as agency workers in the construction sector. In our agreement that covers this work (DEF-Tekniq), agency work is not mentioned. This is where our second strategy takes hold. We take the employers’ organisation to court to enforce our contracts and the law. And so far, we have always won. In this particular case, the court decided that the agency workers should be paid according to the general stipulations within the DEF-Tekniq agreement. If not, it would have been seen as a violation of the agreement. They hold that it is the responsibility of primary employers to treat contract or agency workers the same as the permanent employees.
Now, employers will try to circumvent this. They will claim that the workers they hire are subcontractors themselves, or self-employed people. We continue to bring such claims before the courts and so far, we have been winning.
How difficult is it to organise contract or agency workers into your existing union structures?
This is exactly the third strategy. We are very pro-active in organising agency workers or so-called subcontractors into our existing unions. We approach these workers inside their companies and on building sites. The problem we encounter is that contract workers of a specific company might be spread out widely over a geographic area, and oftentimes they switch between company to company, so the problem of reaching them is hard.
In the near future, we will keep taking employers who attempt to avoid their responsibilities to labour court; we will continue to organise contract and agency workers; and where we can, and we encourage more unions in Denmark to actively organise these workers as well. Until now, we are the only union in Denmark to do so. But we hope that more unions in Denmark will join us.
Peru Enacts New Contract Labour Law Assuring Rights
On 28 May, 2008, Peru’s National Assembly passed an outsourcing law, giving full labour rights to contract workers. On 23 June, President Alan García signed the measure into law three days before the bill was set to expire.
There was considerable pressure by employers’ groups to scuttle the bill for fear it would restrict labour market flexibility.
The new outsourcing law will affect 400,000 contract workers, according to the General Confederation of Peruvian Workers (CGTP), one of Peru’s major national labour centres.
Foremost, the law closes down outsourcing “front companies,” which some companies had used to avoid their responsibilities to workers. The new law also holds companies accountable for social security and other benefit payments for one year following the expiration of the outsourcing contracts.
The law sets stricter conditions for registering outsourcing companies, which will now have to have more than one client, and establishes a register of businesses using outsourcing companies, so that the Labour Ministry can monitor and inspect them.
The government’s support of the new law reveals that it is no longer willing to turn a blind eye to the mining industry boom caused by soaring mineral prices, resulting in windfall corporate profits.
The new contract labour law was passed primarily due to pressure from the ICEM’s Peruvian mining union affiliate, FNTMMSP. The ICEM commends the Peruvian union for its diligent work, particularly on behalf of the 85,000 contract workers who work in the country’s important mining industry.
Positive Developments for Agency Workers in Thailand
In early 2008, with support from the ICEM CAL Project, workers at German-owned Thai Industrial Gases (TIG), a subsidiary of Linde, and their union TIGLU, signed a milestone agreement with the company. The accord secured their rights to organise TIG workers across Thailand.
TIG/Linde is Thailand’s biggest provider of industrial gases. The agreement came only after a struggle, including a month-long protest at all of the company’s 13 work sites. It also saw support and pressure by the ICEM and its global affiliates, including ones in Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium.
This was a remarkable achievement for the TIGLU, which was established only three years ago.
In one situation, jobs had been contracted out first to Adecco. That temporary agency firm was then replaced by an unknown agency, whose address turned out to be a building under construction. This made the agency seem a sham, making it appear that this was an attempt by TIG/Linde to circumvent the union.
Most workers signed the new work agreements, but nine refused and were fired. Reportedly, some who did sign were threatened with dismissal if they got involved in union activities.
In the end, TIG/Linde agreed to reinstate the nine dismissed workers, who were all truck drivers. The company also agreed not to victimise workers by transferring them, a common tactic used by the company. TIG/Linde also agreed to give the 19 agency workers the same conditions as TIG’s regular employees.
TIGLU has also used the Thai labour inspection service to counter bad employment practices at TIG’s branch in Saraburi province, a worksite where agency workers had received lower overtime pay, no sick leave payments, and were issued inadequate safety equipment. After the inspection, the employment agency paid the workers in full, but then retaliated by giving them contracts which had to be renewed every three months.
A national campaign in Thailand calling for recognition of workers’ rights for temporary or agency workers, and their right to unionise and join the same union as permanent workers, has now been started through support of the ICEM campaign. Union networks have been formed to organise and protect agency and contract workers throughout Thailand.
Minimum Wage Bill for Agency Workers Passes Major Hurdle in New Zealand
New Zealand’s labour agency workers are hopefully on the road to have minimum wage protection soon. That follows passage of the second reading in Parliament in May of Labour Party MP Darien Fenton's Minimum Wage and Remuneration Amendment Bill.
The bill is intended to give protection to agency workers by fixing an anomaly that allows them to be paid below the minimum wage for their services.
New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Secretary Carol Beaumont said that people doing contract work for less than minimum wage deserve the full wage protections that are afforded to other workers.
“There are people doing (agency) work right now who are paid poverty wages, and these people need the full protection of minimum wage laws,” she said.
“Most (agency workers) in New Zealand should be remunerated at well above the minimum wage. For those that are not, this bill would provide protection against being exploited by companies wanting to unreasonably drive down costs.
“Contracting practices are certainly widespread in industries such as acting, cleaning, and forestry,” she stated.
The bill has the support of the Labour Party, the Greens, and the Maori Party, with opposition coming from parliamentarians in NZ First and the National Party, which argue there is not a need for minimum wage protection. They also argue that the bill will create too many “compliance costs.”
After the second reading met passage, the bill now moved to a Select Committee. From there, it goes to the House for one more reading, before passed into law.
Pakistani Food Workers Challenge Unilever’s Casualisation
Unilever has not always been top of the class in its treatment of agency workers in Asia. In 2004, when Unilever Pakistan sold off a plant producing Dalda brand edible oils and fats to a group of company managers, it came as no surprise that the new Dalda managers began applying the lessons learned at Unilever.
As well as buying out the competition, their labour relations’ behaviour involved reducing permanent employment and keeping potential union influence to a minimum. Dalda workers, however, are challenging the denial of trade union rights to agency workers, and are currently fighting back through a newly formed union.
They were encouraged by a successful challenge to casualisation at Coca-Cola Pakistan, and then contacted the IUF and the Coca-Cola union for support. Over 430 workers have signed up as members of the Dalda Food Employees Union, which then applied for official recognition from Pakistan’s relevant authority.
Since they feared a backlash, and were aware of Unilever’s savage reprisals against temporary workers’ at the company’s Rahim Yar Khan factory in Pakistan in November 2007, the union applied to the courts for a “stay order.” This blocked the company from firing workers, or closing the plant. But management violated the order and fired 266 workers at the end of May 2008.
By early June, the union had received official union registration, and with the support of the IUF-affiliated Pakistan National Federation of Food, Beverage, and Tobacco Workers’ Union, applied for collective bargaining status.
Dalda management challenged this, and workers have set up a permanent encampment in front of the plant with support from the Federation. With daily visits from representatives of trade unions, political, and civil society organisations, the camp has become a living symbol of the struggle against Pakistan’s repressive regime of outsourcing and use of casual labour.
UNI-Europa Signs Accord with Temp Work Association; UNI Renews Global Agreement with Danish Firm
UNI-Europa, the European section of the Global Union Federation UNI, signed an agreement in May 2008 with Euriciett, Europe’s only association of temporary work agencies. UNI-Europa and Eurociett agreed on a joint declaration related to the draft EU Directive on Agency Work, while UNI also made improvements in a renewed Global Framework Agreement with ISS, a Danish-based company that provides property services worldwide.
UNI-Europa’s accord with the umbrella association of temp work agencies “recognises the principle of equal treatment from day 1 for temporary agency workers,” the same language as contained in the draft EU Directive.
The text of the document improves on the draft Directive by providing two definitions for the comparability of workers, “extending the comparison of the working and employment conditions to those workers doing the same or similar job in the user company.”
The agreement also enjoins both parties to a commitment that temporary agency workers should not replace workers who are on strike.
These issues are viewed as sensitive within the industry, as they are important for its public image. Larger agencies like Adecco, Manpower, Randstad, and Vedior are concerned that smaller and mid-size agencies will not follow the rules.
Most agency workers do not work for companies with which UNI is dealing. UNI therefore hopes to first reach an agreement with employers on workers’ whose interests are directly represented by UNI. After this is signed, possibly in September 2008, it is hoped to extend this to all temporary agency workers, perhaps early next year.
UNI-Europa's Bernadette Ségol
UNI-Europa General Secretary Bernadette Ségol said, “It is now urgent that the EU institutions finally agree on a Directive on (temporary agency work) to protect the interest of workers.” UNI-Europa has lobbied the European Commission for the past ten years for a Directive on agency work.
The renewal agreement between UNI and ISS, which employs 440,000 workers worldwide, was signed in June and gives staff the right to join unions and to bargain collectively.
As part of the agreement, ISS will donate €100,000 annually to a jointly managed fund aimed at raising standards in specific areas where current conditions are inadequate. As well, at twice-yearly meetings, there is also an enforcement mechanism for mediation or arbitration in case of disputes.
“Our employees are spread among tens of thousands of clients in 50 countries. For unions to get access to these employees is not that easy. Hopefully this agreement can help,” said ISS Group CEO Jørgen Lindegaard.