Last Friday, 27th April 2012, the Seanad debated the Protection of Employees (Temporary Agency Work) Bill 2011. Amendments that were proposed by Minister Richard Bruton (Minister for Jobs Enterprise and Innovation) were accepted in this meeting from the Seanad, and the Bill will now make its way through the Dail and is due to be with the President Michael D. Higgins on the 9th of May. The President has 7 days to sign it off into Legislation and subject to there being no objections or further amendments it is envisaged that the legislation will be passed around the middle of May.
Of the changes accepted by the Seanad, one of the most striking, and due in no small part to the recommendations made by the National Recruitment Federation, is that the reference to a Comparator has been removed from the wording of the Bill. Previously the Bill required an Employer to provide the same "basic working and employment conditions as a comparable employee" to an Agency Worker. This opened the Bill up to intense criticism as a comparable employee may also have significant experience and as such be on a higher rate of pay than a person who was recruited directly into the role. The wording has been amended as follows “7.—(1) Subject to any collective agreement for the time being standing approved under section 8, an agency worker shall, for the duration of his or her assignment with a hirer, be entitled to the same basic working and employment conditions as the basic working and employment conditions to which he or she would be entitled if he or she were employed by the hirer under a contract of employment to do work that is the same as, or similar to, the work that he or she is required to do during that assignment.”. The revised wording now states that an Agency Worker will receive the same basic working an employment conditions as they would do had they been directly recruited into the role by the Hiring Company, thus potentially allowing for differences in pay between workers performing comparable work. Another notable inclusion is an Anti Avoidance measure that has been inserted to avoid a scenario where a company offers pay increments based on length of service, and the hiring Company is avoiding these by issuing the Agency worker with rolling contracts with short breaks in between assignments. Now an employee will not return following a break back to their "day one" rates and would return with potentially their length of service in tact Full details of the Seanad debate can be found by clicking here. To download the Peninsula Agency Worker FAQ please Peninsula Agency Worker FAQs.
