SAK: Agency hired labour should be provided with regular jobs by job agencies

(Helsinki 2007 - Juhani Artto) Finnish legislation does not offer much protection to agency hired labour. Moreover, the handful of agreements with regard to agency hired labour, which have been hammered out by labour market parties often leave agency hired labour bereft of the benefits which are usually enjoyed by employees with regular jobs.

For the largest trade union confederation SAK the current situation in respect of agency hired labour is totally unacceptable. In recent years the problem has become more critical as the use of agency hired labour has dramatically increased.

In the last few months, an SAK task force has worked out reform proposals, which would improve, in all essentials, the status of agency hired labour. The confederation wants these proposals to be taken seriously in the parliamentary election campaigns and in the government programme negotiations following the 18 March 2007 election.

A decisive step forward would, in most cases, be achieved by making agency hired labour regular employees of job agencies so they would be guaranteed a certain wage or salary even during periods when their agencies were unable to find work for them.

In Sweden, the guarantee wage/salary system has already been applied to working life for some time. The experience has been positive as the system has limited the extent to which regular jobs are being replaced by agency hired labour.

Another major improvement would be giving shop stewards the right to represent agency hired labour working at their work places. The shop stewards should also have the right to be informed about pay and other working conditions of agency hired labour.

Nikolas Elomaa, SAK's expert on working conditions, emphasises that SAK's goal is not to totally ban the use of agency hired labour.

"For some people, such as students, fixed term agency hired work may be proper. Such work may also improve employment opportunities", Elomaa says. "However, the rapid growth of agency hired work and its expansion to industries where it was not meant to be applied, is worrying."

For employees who have regular jobs, use of agency hired labour has two faces. In 'worst case' examples, employers have replaced a large proportion of their regular employees by agency hired labour. On the other hand, there have been cases where employers have used agency hired labour as a reserve pool of labour which has strengthened job security for regular employees.

In 2005, the total turnover of the job agencies was EUR650 millions. Experts expect the rapid growth in this sector to continue. On a final note, it should be borne in mind that an agency hired labour system, as exists in Finland today, was only legalised a decade ago.

The story is mainly based on Pirjo Pajunen&#;8217s article Turvatonta työtä (Unsafe work), published in December 2006 by SAK's monthly Palkkatyöläinen. It was first published in English in Trade Union News from Finland.