STAFF PROVIDED by employment agencies will have to be paid the same basic pay and have the same annual leave entitlements as permanent employees.
The move follows the collapse in talks last night between the Government, unions and employers on the implementation of an EU directive covering agency workers.
The directive provides that workers supplied by agencies have the same pay and conditions as regular staff from their first day on the job. However, it also allows for a qualifying period under which agency workers could be recruited on different terms for a specific period if agreement on this could be reached between employers and unions.
Minister for Enterprise and Jobs Richard Bruton is to brief the Cabinet today on the breakdown of the talks and the implications of the directive for employment in the public and private sectors.
Some employers have claimed implementation of the directive in full could cost up to 8,000 jobs.
A spokesman for Mr Bruton said last night the principle of equal treatment of temporary agency workers and full-time employees would apply across the economy from next Monday.
The department would be meeting representatives of private sector employers today to discuss the matter in detail, he said.
The full implementation of the directive could cost the Health Service Executive, which introduced new scales for agency staff several months ago, about €33 million next year.
Talks between the Government, employers and unions had been continuing for the last three months on a possible derogation or qualifying period to apply in Ireland in advance of next week’s implementation deadline.
However, a final round of talks convened by the Minister broke down last night.
The spokesman said the Minister was “disappointed that at a time of crisis, an issue which had the potential to impact on employment and which was in the gift of the social partners was not resolved by them”.
The spokesman said Mr Bruton had been prepared to explore all reasonable avenues to reach a deal. However, he was not prepared to reverse reforms already agreed. This is understood to refer to the issue of possible changes to the reforms on rates for Sunday work.
General secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions David Begg said last night no persuasive case had been made as to why the application of the directive should be different here from the situation across Europe, with the exception of the UK where a qualifying period of 12 weeks was agreed.
Brendan McGinty, director of the employers’ body Ibec said: “Ireland’s failure to implement a qualification period of up to 12 months, as proposed by Ibec, will have a direct impact on jobs and foreign direct investment.”
