Temporary Worker Rights: Conditions, Access, and Equal Treatment

Basic Working and Employment Conditions for Temporary Workers

Member States may, after consultation with social partners at national level and on the basis of an agreement concluded by them, establish provisions concerning the basic working and employment conditions which derogate from the principle established in paragraph 1. Such arrangements may include a deadline to achieve equal treatment. The provisions referred to in this paragraph shall comply with Community law and be sufficiently precise and accessible to allow sectors and enterprises concerned to identify and meet their obligations.

Social Security and Other Schemes

Member States shall specify whether social security schemes, including pensions, cash benefits for sickness, or financial participation schemes, are included in the provisions relating to basic working conditions and employment.

National, Regional, Local, or Sectoral Agreements

Such arrangements shall also be without prejudice to agreements at national, regional, local, or sectoral level that are no less favorable to workers.

Access to Employment, Collective Facilities, and Vocational Training

1. Temporary workers employed by temporary employment agencies shall be informed of vacancies existing in the user undertaking to have the same opportunities as other workers in that undertaking to find permanent employment. This information may be provided by a general announcement in a suitable place within the user undertaking, accessible to temporary workers supervised by or bound to an ETT.

2. Member States shall take necessary measures to ensure that clauses prohibiting or preventing the conclusion of an employment contract or relationship between the user undertaking and the temporary worker (employed by an ETT) after the expiration of their assignment are null and void or may be declared void. This paragraph is without prejudice to provisions under which ETTs receive a reasonable level of compensation for services rendered to user undertakings for the assignment, recruitment, and training of workers.

Conditions of Employment and Working

Principle of Equal Treatment

1. The basic working and employment conditions of temporary workers employed by temporary employment agencies during their assignment in a user undertaking shall, at a minimum, be those that would apply if they had been recruited directly by that undertaking to occupy the same position. For the implementation of the first paragraph, the user undertaking's rules on:

   • a) protection of pregnant and breastfeeding workers, and children and young people, as well as
   • b) equal treatment for men and women and measures taken to combat discrimination based on sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation,

   must be respected, as established by legislative, regulatory, administrative provisions, collective agreements, and other general provisions.

2. Compensation Derogations

   Member States may, after consultation with social partners, derogate from the provisions referred to in paragraph 1 when temporary workers employed by temporary employment agencies, linked by a permanent contract, continue to be paid during periods between assignments.

3. Collective Agreements and Working Conditions

   Member States shall, after consulting the social partners, provide, at the appropriate level and observing the conditions laid down by Member States, for the possibility of upholding or concluding collective agreements which, while respecting the overall protection of temporary workers employed by temporary employment agencies, establish arrangements concerning their working conditions and employment that may differ from those referred to in paragraph 1.

4. Flexibility in Protection Standards

   Provided that an adequate level of protection for temporary workers is granted by Member States in which there is no law to declare a general application of collective agreements, nor is there in law or in practice such a system to extend its provisions to all similar undertakings in a sector or particular geographic area, specific arrangements may be established.