WP 54 - Temporary agency work in the Netherlands

This paper is the result of a study on temp agency workers and on the role that temp agency work played in company’s staffing strategies and on industry and national regulations regarding temp agencies and temp agency work. It was conducted in2004-2006, as part of a larger project on low wage work in the Netherlands, which was part of a five country study for the Russell Sage Foundation, USA. In order to provide a background for understanding temporary agency work, recent developments in and the various forms of external numerical flexibility in the Netherlands are sketched first. The temporary agency market apparently is well equipped to provide services for firms’ demands for flexible labor. The largest volume of temp work through agencies includes rather low-skilled jobs for manufacturing, transport, cleaning and administrative work, although most large temp work agencies also maintain specialized departments for outsourcing nurses, secretaries, managers, and other professional medical or technical staff. If one relates the 2004 figures to the Dutch dependent workforce at large, temp agency workers made up 6.0 percent (head-count) of that workforce, and 4.5 percent in FTEs. In firms using temp agency workers, on average 7 percent of the workforce recently was made up of temp agency workers. Major motives for companies to hire temp agency workers are peaks in production, mostly predictable peaks, as well as replacement of staff falling ill. As for the regulatory regime, in the late 1990s, two species of legislation were introduced that are of relevance here. The Flexibility and Security (‘Flexicurity’) Act of 1999, replacing the 1965 law, is most important for the regulation of employment relationships in and by temp work agencies. The 1998 WAADI Act regulates the temp agency product market, and abolished the former license system, although the government kept the option open to reinstate such a system ‘in the interest of good relations on the labour market or the interests of the personell concerned’. For temp work agencies the main implication of the new law was that agreements between them and employees were to be employment contracts. As temp work agencies are assumed to bear employer responsibility, this may lead to larger security for temp agency workers. Temp agency workers are for the larger part covered by a collective agreement, concluded by General Federation Temporary Work Agencies - ABU with the major trade unions. After mandatory extension, about 94 percent of the temp agency workers were covered by an agreement. For typologies of temp agency workers on employment status and education we have analysed the 2004 data of the WageIndicator, collected via a web-based survey addressing the labor force in the Netherlands. The analyses show that 1.7 percent of the observations concerned a temp agency worker. Of this group, one out of ten indicated to be a school pupil or student. Another five percent was a housewife/man with a job on the side, partly disabled, unemployed, or working without loss of unemployment benefits. Temp agency work is often associated with people with a weak position in the labour market, but it appeared that temp agency workers did not significantly differ from other workers with regard to their years of education, although they more often had enjoyed general education instead of vocational education. Temp agency workers are typically young workers, as they proved to be relatively younger than the workforce of any other large branch of industry. Compared with their share in the total Dutch workforce, migrant workers, from western or from non-western origin, are comparatively more often employed via temp work agencies.

International healthcare worker migration in Asia Pacific: International policy responses

The growth of the international migration of health workers in recent decades has taken place in the context of the transnationalisation of healthcare provision as well as of governance and policy responses. This paper examines international policy responses to cross-border health worker migration in the Asia Pacific region. These include multilateral (global and regional) and bilateral policy agreements, policy dialogue and programmes of action in relation to key issues of ethical recruitment, ‘circular’ migration and labour rights and key themes of health workforce planning and management. The paper brings original new analysis of international datasets and secondary data to bear on the pressing and important questions of what international policy initiatives and responses are at work in the Asia Pacific region, and what these mean for the nature of migration governance in the region. The paper's focus routes the evidence and argument towards current research and policy debates about the relationship between health worker migration, health worker shortages and poor health outcomes. In this, the paper brings new insights into the analysis of the international policy ‘universe’ through its emphasis on multiple and intersecting cross-border institutions, initiatives and actors operating across different scales. Coherent national and international strategies for integrated health worker migration governance and policy need to incorporate these insights, and the paper considers their implications for current strategies to attain universal health care and improved health outcomes in Asia Pacific and beyond

Trade and Jobs in Portugal: A Microeconomic Approach. CEPS Working Document No. 160, January 2001

The Portuguese economy presents a low unemployment rate when compared to its European counterparts and it has been claimed that this is partly due to the slow restructuring of the economy, which has been keeping its specialisation in traditional industries, some of them major exporting industries. This study analyses job creation and job destruction at the firm level across skill groups, during the 1980s and the 1990s. The major aim is to explore the role of international trade against alternative explanations of job flows, providing an answer to the question: did international trade help sustain the employment of particular groups of workers, namely the least skilled, in the Portuguese economy? Could conditions in international markets therefore have contributed to keep a low unemployment rate? A matched data set on workers and firms is used, which includes a direct measure of the skill of the worker. Results indicate that technology indicators are more relevant determinants of job flows than conditions in international product markets. Indeed, import prices have no impact on job creation or job destruction for the unskilled or on job creation for the skilled. Higher export prices lead to job creation for the skilled labour force, thus pointing to a certain skill upgrading

Globalization and Labour in the Twenty-First Century

Globalisation has adversely affected working-class organisation and mobilisation; but international labour movement demobilisation is not necessarily an irreversible trend. Globalisation has prompted workers and their organisations to find new ways to mobilise. This book examines international labour movement opposition to globalisation. It chronicles and critically scrutinizes the emergence of distinctively new forms of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that constitute creative initiatives on the part of labour, which present capitalism with fresh challenges. The author identifies eight characteristics of globalisation that have proven problematic to workers and their organisations and describes and analyses how they have responded to these challenges since 1990 and especially in the past decade. In particular, it focuses attention on new types of labour movement organisation and mobilisation that are not simply defensive reactions but are offensive and innovative responses that compel corporations to behave more responsively and responsibly towards employees and society at large. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of globalisation, political economy, labour politics, economics, Marxism and sociology of work

Facing inequality at work. Atypical employment and social protection in Europe

The article has as specific goal to understand the limits of collective bargaining in relation to non-standard jobs. As case study the article analyses the activity and employment cooperatives (CAEs) and a particular case of a European cooperative “SMART”, that puts together atypical workers in general, and tries to make up to a coverage problem giving them an on-call contract, that is traduced as an opportunity to access welfare system. In this way it acts as an indirect welfare, and it allows workers to access social benefits

ILO survey report on the National Initiatives to Promote Quality Apprenticeships in G20 Countries

While the level of educational attainment has been rising globally in the past decades, in many countries education and training systems struggle with adapting to rapidly changing skill needs in the fast evolving labour market. The resulting skills mismatch exerts upward pressure on youth unemployment rates with young people opting for jobs that do not match their qualifications which in turn limits their salary and progression prospects. At the same time, businesses, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises, face critical skills shortages as they seek to expand. Unemployment affects youth almost three times more than adults. As such, it is crucial to implement measures to improve the employability of young people. It is in this context that the International Labour Office (ILO), with the support of the JPMorgan Chase Foundation, launched the Skills that Work Project: Improving the Employability of Low and Middle-Skilled Workers in February 2017. The project aims to promote quality apprenticeships as an effective means to provide young people from diverse backgrounds with labour market relevant skills, and exposure to the work environment and a smoother transition into employment. Quality apprenticeships are known to facilitate the school-to-work transition of youth as they offer employer-led skills development opportunities that lead to nationally recognised qualifications. As a result, policymakers increasingly rely on apprenticeships to address skills mismatch and youth unemployment. In fact, the G20, L20 and B20 have committed to promote apprenticeships. In this light, we believe it is timely and helpful to take stock of good national initiatives to improve apprenticeships and make the knowledge widely available as part of our continuous efforts to support evidence-based policymaking. The project also provides support to the design and implementation of quality apprenticeship programmes by providing a concise set of key information and practical tools. It is our hope that this report contributes to the promotion of quality apprenticeships by facilitating policy discussions and enhancing our knowledge base of various initiatives that have been tested in the G20 Member States

Spartan Daily March 7, 2012

Volume 138, Issue 22https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/1021/thumbnail.jp