The Commission's amended proposal of 28 November 2002, Document COM (2002) 701 Final, has been the subject of detailed consideration by the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council and was the subject of a lengthy debate at the council meeting on 3 June 2003, which I attended.
I regret that it was not possible for the Council of Ministers, notwithstanding the constructive efforts made by the Greek Presidency, to arrive at a balanced compromise solution which could be agreed by all member states on 3 June. There is continuing disagreement surrounding three issues: the concept of a qualifying period which would apply before temporary agency workers would secure basic pay parity and equivalent conditions to those of the permanent employees in the enterprises to which they are assigned ; the duration of such a qualifying period, and whether it should be time-limited or transitional in character; and whether the provisions for the protection of the temporary agency workers should be complemented the prohibition of restrictions or prohibitions on agency work which do not have the protection of agency workers and health and safety as their objective.
The European Commission's proposal would have allowed the temporary agency businesses a six-week qualifying period before temporary agency workers assigned to a user enterprise would qualify for the same terms and conditions as permanent employees. The concept of such a qualifying period is opposed by eleven member states. Ireland has been seeking, together with three other countries, to secure a significant lengthening of a qualifying period originally proposed by the Commission.
