Agreement and orderliness on the construction site and in the workshop.
As a temp agency, we must unfortunately admit that we belong to an industry that has a somewhat tarnished reputation. And in many contexts, it's fully deserved. Time and time again, cases pop up where temporary workers have been hired on the wrong contracts, have not been paid the right wages, or because working conditions or accommodation have simply been unacceptable.
Whether it's to cheat or it's the result of a lack of insight - knowledge of the rules that apply when hiring and hiring out staff - is not for us to judge. We just have to acknowledge, with great regret, that there are temp agencies that cut corners that can harm their own customers, the temps and their colleagues in the industry when rules and propriety are interpreted too freely.
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Who is responsible for orderliness?
We are convinced that an open and close collaboration between the user company (the temp agency's client) and the temp agency is necessary in order to plan and execute a "proper" temporary assignment. Not least because a temporary assignment IS a collaboration where the parties share responsibility and obligations for the process.
Just because the user company buys a product - a temporary job - from a partner, it doesn't mean the user company can shirk responsibility. And the temp agency, on the other hand, can't point to its client and shirk its own share of responsibility either.
Should the user company and temp agency be "unfortunate to have made a mistake" that results in a fine, back pay and finger pointing or a boring front page in the newspapers, the negative attention will probably be most damaging to the user company. The financial consequence of the mistake will probably have to be shared between the user company and the temp agency. Even if the user company has purchased the "whole package" from a temp agency. This is why close collaboration is necessary.
Read also: Temporary staffing agency in Odense that delivers temporary workers to construction sites across the country
What rules do agencies have to follow?
The correct answer is of course "all" - from the Personal Data Act, to the Holiday Act, to the Personal Tax Act and the Aliens Act, if the employment of foreign workers is also involved. These are either fully or partially something the temp agency alone handles. And then there is the Occupational Health and Safety Act and a host of other laws and regulations that the parties must necessarily consider joint responsibility, but where the day-to-day management mainly starts with the user company, which manages and distributes the work. This also applies to the two "heavy" areas, namely the Collective Agreements and the Temporary Workers Act.
Is a Collective Agreement a guarantee of decency?
There is no requirement for an employer to be a signatory to a collective agreement. And employees who are not employed under a collective agreement are not entitled to the same rights as employees who are employed under a collective agreement.
Your temp agency is responsible for ensuring that temporary workers are hired on the "right terms". But of course, this can only happen if the user company is in control of the terms and conditions under which their own employees are hired. So it's important to clarify whether there is a collective agreement, local agreements or established practices. Similarly, the user company should help clarify the pay conditions for hiring temporary workers.
There are many reasons for a company to join a collective agreement. Just as there can be many reasons not to. As a temp agency, we are sometimes presented with the belief that there is an equivalence between joining a collective agreement and "doing it properly" in the individual company. But there's not necessarily any truth to this. Just as there doesn't have to be any truth in the opposite being the case.
For us, decency is a matter of attitude and behavior. About being professionally skilled, taking responsibility for the work you deliver and complying with the agreements you are part of. Collective agreement or not.
Read also: Why onboarding new employees is important
What does a Collective Agreement mean?
A collective agreement is a collective agreement between an association of employees - a trade union - and an employer or an employers' organization. The collective agreement describes the minimum conditions to which employees covered by the individual agreement are entitled. The collective agreement describes the minimum wage, rules for termination, supplements for work at special times, overtime pay, etc.
When a company has signed a comprehensive collective agreement, the company has an obligation to employ employees on the terms described in the agreement. This means that the company must accept requirements for minimum wage, agreements on fixed working hours, the employee's access to breaks, supplements for work at inconvenient times - evenings, nights and weekends, and additional supplements for overtime, just as the collective agreement describes conditions regarding sick pay, maternity leave, free choice account, holiday pay, pension, etc. The collective agreement thus defines the conditions that employees are entitled to as a minimum.
However, companies are allowed to offer employees better conditions than those described in the collective agreement. At the individual company, it is possible to enter into a special agreement on, for example, flexitime, special allowances, attendance bonuses, etc. which can be aimed at creating increased flexibility, attracting talented employees, reducing redundancies, increasing loyalty, or simply giving employees an extra reward for a good performance. There can be many benefits to creating a "Local Agreement". However, it requires that employees are better off than they would be under the collective agreement alone and that the agreement is approved by the company's union.
Companies without a collective agreement.
If it is a sign of decency to have signed a collective agreement, is it a sign of lack of decency if a company has not signed a collective agreement? Not in our book. As a temp agency, our ability to recruit employees for a given company is largely dependent on the terms and conditions offered to the employee - both in terms of pay, tasks, working hours, length of contract, etc. but also in terms of the company's reputation in the market.
Of course, this doesn't mean that it's impossible to attract employees to your company if you don't have a collective agreement. If the salary, employment conditions, job content and other conditions offered to employees are attractive, workers will usually be interested in joining your company. Again, "supply and demand" applies.
When a company is not a signatory to a collective agreement, drafting employment contracts can be a bit more complicated, precisely because it is not possible to refer to the "terms of the collective agreement". It therefore requires a more detailed description of the terms that apply to the individual employment relationship. Terms that, for the most part, can be negotiated between the employer and the employee.
At Procur, we have no opinion on whether your company should have a collective agreement. That's a choice for you to make. But we do have an opinion on what decency is. And it's about people and the behavior we encounter when working with your company.
What are the agency's obligations?
In simple terms, the temp agency's job is to attract qualified workers, arrange temporary employment, dispatch them to the user company as agreed, and take care of the payroll for the temporary workers.
Although it sounds simple, there have unfortunately been a number of unfortunate cases that have filled front page after front page in the daily press. Stories about temporary workers employed under miserable conditions, working hard for unreasonable wages or crammed together in substandard housing conditions. In the temporary staffing industry, decency is also about the people behind the companies, who must ensure that hiring and sending out employees is done on decent terms.
Temporary employment law.
Since 2013, there has been a special legislation (the Temporary Agency Workers Act) that aims to clarify the temporary agency's obligations in relation to agency workers. Basically, it's about ensuring that temporary workers have at least the same conditions as the user company's own employees - in terms of working hours, overtime, breaks, rest periods, night work, vacation, public holidays AND remuneration. In this way, temporary worker legislation states that "a cheap temporary worker" cannot be recruited or sent out, simply because temporary workers must be paid at least the same as the user company's own employees - regardless of whether the temporary worker is Danish or foreign.
In order to ensure that hiring is done on the right terms, it is therefore necessary for the temp agency to collect a range of information about the terms under which the customer's other employees are employed. And here's a little wrinkle that you and your temp agency need to be aware of;
If your temporary agency has not joined the collective agreement that applies to your company, employment must be carried out in accordance with the temporary worker legislation. This means that temporary workers must be "treated equally" and offered the same terms and conditions as the user company's employees in the same job. Therefore, you should be aware that the temporary agency must have information about the length of working hours, overtime, breaks, rest periods, vacation, public holidays and pay in order to hire according to the rules. This applies regardless of whether your company has signed a collective agreement or not.
If your temp agency has joinedthat collective agreement, the temp agency is now obliged to hire according to the applicable collective agreement instead. This can have an impact on pay and employment conditions. And it means that companies that have opted out of the collective agreement will now still use workers who are employed under the collective agreement that was deliberately opted out of. Furthermore, it also means that the temp agency is obliged to hire according to the collective agreement rather than "following the customer" and thus ensuring the equal treatment dictated by the Temporary Agency Workers Act.
Read also: How we can create value for your business
Who is responsible for your temps?
Even though there are clear rules for hiring, salary and other matters when hiring employees, there are still several union and employment law cases that document that things are not always done by the book. Whether this is due to a lack of insight or a lack of orderliness, we can't know. But it's important that you as a user company are aware that you can't delegate the responsibility for proper recruitment to your temp agency, even if you pay your partner to take on the task of recruiting and hiring the employees you hire.
The shared responsibility?
The responsibility for hiring, performing and paying temporary workers is a shared responsibility. You can't walk away from that. That's why you should make sure your temp agency knows the rules - and knows how to follow them.
If you want to know more, please contact us on +45 3215 1010.
