Temporary Agency Workers - Their Employment Conditions and Prospects

摘要

Temporary agency work is one of the most rapidly expanding forms of employment in Germany, and it is thus of great importance for employment policy. The purpose of the amendment to the Law on Staff Leasing passed at the end of 2002 as part of the First Law for Modern Services on the Labour Market (Hartz 1) is therefore to make better use of the employment potential in temporary agency work. At the same time the new legislation will fundamentally change the employment conditions for temporary agency workers from 2004. In particular, from then temporary agencies will be obliged by law to guarantee that their 'temps' will receive the same wages and enjoy the same working conditions in their customer firms as the full-time employees of that firm (the principle of equal pay and equal treatment).