Temporary Agency Work in the European Union

By Dr Henrik Stener Pedersen, Claus Bo Hansen and Susan Mahler

Employment in temporary agency work (TAW) in the EU has increased rapidly during the last decade.

According to CIETT (International Confederation of Temporary Agency Work Businesses ), temporary work agencies in the European Union currently employ over seven million workers - 1.9% of the EU working population. There were an average of 2.8 million workers working through employment agencies on any given day in 2001 .

The expansion of TAW has created a growing interest in the matter across Europe in recent years. There is a need to learn more about the phenomenon, and the related impacts.

The concept of TAW is characterised by a triangular relationship between three parties: a temporary agency worker is employed by a temporary work agency (TWA) and is then, via a commercial contract, hired out to perform work assignments at a user firm

.

From a macro economic perspective, TAW is often viewed as a tool for promoting flexibility in the labour market. It improves job matching and reduces frictional unemployment. On the other hand, research in the field of working conditions and health impacts indicates that workers engaged in TAW, in common with workers in other flexible and atypical types of employment, are more exposed to risk factors than permanent workers.