A generation ago, temporary work was practically outlawed. During the 1950s, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) clearly stated (in request to a question from the Swedish government) that temporary agency work was prohibited by ILO Convention 96 regarding fee-charging placement. Trade unions, of course, were in complete agreement, both because temporary work arrangements undermined the situation of permanent workers and deprived the temporary workers themselves of equal treatment guarantees. Yet persistent employers, always ready to find ways around this prohibition, have gone from strength to strength until today the role of private employment services is offered up to the public as that of an active link between employer and employee and an equal benefit to both. It is even defended as a force that effects the social integration of long-term unemployed, even of non-qualified or less-qualified workers. It is indeed along these lines that the proposed European directive on the working conditions of temporary workers justifies its requirement of Member States to discontinue any restrictions or prohibitions on temporary work for certain groups of workers, sectors or areas of economic activity. But how justifiable is this idea of the generalized leasing of employees? How acceptable is it under both labour law and social justice considerations? Although these important questions have been asked repeatedly for many years, no answers acceptable to all parties have yet been found. Accordingly, in April 2003 a group of outstanding authorities- practitioners, ILO officials, academics, policymakers, jurists, and labour experts-met in Brussels to reconsider these issues in light of the ongoing discussion on the proposed directive and the major labour market developments which have taken place in many countries over the last few years. Among the considerations raised there (and recorded in this book) are the following:the potential role of private employment agencies as fully integrated manpower providers;the wages and working conditions of workers who are put at the disposal of users;guarantees of equal treatment and other social protection provisions for temporary workers;the possible development of a dual-employer scheme of agency and user; and, continuing work 'diversification' and its acceptability to the various actors and interests involved. These papers, reports and panels merit great attention because the matters they discuss will determine the way our labour markets-at national, European and international level-will function for years to come. No practitioner, policymaker, or academic in the field of employment and labour relations can afford to ignore this very significant book. This volume contains reports given at the International Conference on Temporary Agency Work and the Information Society, held on 28-29 April 2003 at the Royal Flemish Academy, Brussels, and sponsored jointly by the Academy, the Euro-Japan Institute for Law and Business, and the Society for International and Social Cooperation.

Despite its geographic and industry expansion as part of the ongoing globalisation of service activity, temporary agency work (TAW) is relatively understudied. TAW is characterised by a distinct triangular structure where workers are typically hired by staffing or employment agencies while being ’dispatched’ to firms that use them as a type of temporary or non-regular labour. This agency-mediated labour dispatching, as a newly institutionalised industry, has registered rapid growth rates over recent decades across vast swathes of the globe. To a great degree, TAW is part of a wider structural transformation of work and employment under neoliberalism. Arguably, controversy over the expanding non-regular workforce is at its most acute when it comes to unsavoury labour-selling practices. In this connection, TAW is an exemplary field in which to examine today’s ’flexible’ capitalism and its concomitant phenomenon, i.e. ’inequality’. Featuring holistic and interdisciplinary perspectives, this edited collection provides a comprehensive overview of TAW, in an international context. It reveals how the TAW industry is intertwined with the changing relationship between the state, corporations and labour unions at the institutional-structural level, and also the perceptions and experiences of ordinary workers in everyday practice. By combining global and local forces, macro and micro levels of analysis, and theoretical and empirical investigations, the book offers fresh insights into recurring issues of labour flexibility and inequality, contributes to practical applications and facilitates fruitful cross-national collaborations.

Since the very beginning, temporary agency work has been an accepted feature in the United States’ labour market. In the European Union, however, it took more than thirty years to agree on European-level legislation in this area. The European Directive 2008/104/EC on Temporary Agency Work was promulgated on 19 November 2008. Implementation was due by 5 December 2011. The directive left many options for Member States, such as regarding the fundamental issue of equal treatment between the temporary agency worker and a comparable worker in the user enterprise. Furthermore, Member States had to review restrictions or prohibitions on the use of temporary agency work in order to comply with the directive. This book provides in-depth insight into the transposition of Directive 2008/104/EC in national legislation, collective agreements, and practices throughout the European Union. A comparison with the regulation of temporary agency work in the United States gives perspective to the analysis and allows for an assessment of the level of protection afforded in this sector of the labour market both in the EU and in the US.

Within the context of social law, temporary agency work has always been subject of debate. The pursuit of more flexible forms of labour is at odds with maintaining decent labour relations. For that reason, ever since it was established, the UN organisation for labour issues, ILO, has focused on private work placement. In its early years it tended to prohibit or severely restrict private work placement, but gradually it came to acknowledge that, for instance, temporary agency work had positive aspects, and that a total ban was pointless. In 1997, this culminated in ILO convention 181, which was widely supported. This did not end the debate on non-standards forms of paid work. Which forms of work can be considered decent? How do they relate to human rights? What are the effects of globalisation? In the European context, too, (cross-border) temporary agency work has attracted extensive attention. Lastly, the Netherlands has its own, unique form of public-private regulation. The guiding principle in this book is whether Convention 181 still has value in this day and age. What are the developments in temporary agency work in the social domain? How do they relate to the wide range of flexible work forms that are increasingly catching up with temporary agency work? Decent flexibility is the challenge. Dr Fred van Haasteren (1949) started his career as a scientific associate at the Society and Enterprise Foundation (SMO). From 1978 onward, he worked in the Dutch temporary agency sector. In 1982 he became a board member of Randstad Nederland; in 1991 he became Vice-President of Randstad Holding. Among other things, he was also President of the platform of European temporary agency employers and of the global temporary agency employer umbrella organisation CIETT. He is still a board member of the Dutch Labour Standards Foundation (SNA) and an independent member of the NCP OECD. The social policy pursued by temporary employment agencies has always been at the centre of his activities.

This book illuminates the process and substance of transnational regulation of labour in a global economy. Transnational labour regulation, a central feature of the European social model, engages the 27 Member States of the European Union, and is of potential importance to the rest of the world. The book analyses the attempts at transnational regulation of temporary agency work through the social dialogue between trade unions and employers' organisations at European level and the subsequent - and so far fruitless - EU legislative process. These two processes of transnational labour regulation, and their interaction, until now have been largely invisible. The book also highlights distinctive features of Member States' national regulation as they interacted with the debates on EU transnational labour regulation. It further explores the overlap between regulation of temporary agency work and the EU's regulation of transnational trade in services, the subject of the Directive on services in the internal market. Finally, it draws lessons from the experience of regulation of temporary agency work at national and European levels for transnational labour regulation in general.

The renowned international labour law scholars contributing to this incomparable volume use the term ‘game changers’ to refer to evolutions, concepts, ideas and challenges that are having, or have had, major impacts on how we must understand and approach labour law in today’s global economy. The volume derives from an international conference organized by the Institute for Labour Law at the University of Leuven, Belgium in November 2017. This initiative is pursued in the spirit and with the methods of the late Emeritus Professor Roger Blanpain (1932–2016), a great reformer who continuously searched for key challenges in the world of work and looked as far as possible into the future, engaging in critical reflection and rethinking the design of labour law. While seeking to identify the main game changers, the authors explore new pathways and answers which may help to understand and shape the future of work. This is the 100th of Kluwer’s Bulletin of Comparative Labour Relations, a series Professor Blanpain launched nearly fifty years ago. The contributors address, and reflect on, such vital issues and topics as the following: – the ‘gig’ economy; – core labour law values; – freedom of association; – non-standard employment; – the rise of the service sector; – employment and self-employment; – the European Pillar of Social Rights; – app-based work; – algorithms as controls in the workplace; – collective bargaining rights and the right to strike; – the role of temporary employment agencies; and – termination of the employment relationship. There are also chapters devoted to specific issues in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Estonia, China and the United States. Roger Blanpain consistently reminded us that labour relations are power relations. Although this book shows that the power balance is tipped towards employers in today’s world, what is nevertheless very clear is that labour law can play a crucial role in re-enlivening equitable outcomes, fairness, decent work and social justice in our contemporary and future societies, and that academia can help to understand, guide and shape that future. For this reason, this book will be invaluable to professionals in labour relations, whether in the academic, policy or legal communities.

It cannot be denied that in recent decades, for many if not most people, work has become unstable and insecure, with serious risk and few benefits for workers. As this reality spills over into political and social life, it is crucial to interrogate the transformations affecting employment relations, shape research agendas, and influence the policies of national and international institutions. This single volume brings together thirty-nine scholars (both academics and experienced industrial relations actors) in the fields of employment relations and labour law in a forthright discussion of new approaches, theories, and methods aimed at ameliorating the world of work. Focusing on why and how work is changing, how collective actors deal with it, and the future of work from different disciplinary angles and at an international level, the contributors describe and analyse such issues and topics as the following: new forms of social protection and representation; differences in the power relations of workers and political dynamics; balancing protection of workers’ dignity and promotion of productivity; intersection of information technology and workplace regulation; how the gig economy undermines legal protections; role of professional and trade associations; workplace conflict management; lay judges in labour courts; undeclared work in the informal sector of the labour market; work incapacity and disability; (in)coherence of the work-related case law of the European Court of Justice; and business restructurings. Derived from a major conference held in Leuven in September 2018, the book offers an in-depth understanding of the changing world of work, its main transformations, and the challenges posed to classical employment relations theories and methods as well as to labour law. With its wide range of insights, analysis, and reflection, this unique contribution to the study of industrial relations offers an authoritative reference guide to scholars, policymakers, trade unions and business associations, human resources professionals, and practitioners who need to deal with the future of work challenges.