Flex Work Research Centre

This paper has been prepared by the International Labour Office as a basis for discussions at the Tripartite Workshop to Promote Ratification of the Private Employment Agencies Convention, 1997 (No. 181). The Governing Body of the ILO decided at its 301st and 305th Sessions (March 2008 and June 2009) that the two-day Tripartite Workshop would be held in Geneva, 20–21 October 2009, and be composed of eight Employer and eight Worker participants, selected after consultations with the respective groups of the Governing Body; and be open to representatives of all interested governments.

The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness of the Convention’s importance among governments, employers and workers, who have a common interest in promoting its ratification. Ratifying Convention No. 181 encourages improved efficiency of national labour markets by permitting private actors to enhance matching of supply of and demand for workers. It promotes cooperation between public and private employment services in various fields, including helping jobseekers and workers in user enterprises. It effectively regulates services provided by private employment agencies, especially temporary work agencies, thereby ensuring reliable professional service providers for human resources, while preventing human trafficking and unfair practices. Ratification could help to promote and implement the Decent Work Agenda by ensuring protection of the rights and working conditions of agency workers. The 2009 Workshop is intended to encourage ratification and implementation of the Convention by ILO member States and cooperation with the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Organisation of Employers (IOE), UNI Global Union, International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies (CIETT) and World Association of Public Employment Services (WAPES). The Convention is of relevance to several sectors, notably construction; financial and professional services; health services; hotels, catering, tourism; media, culture, graphical; mining; and transport.

The first chapter gives political and economic background and main provisions of Convention No. 181. The second chapter is an overview of private employment agencies and main provisions of Convention No. 181. The third chapter discusses several key dimensions which characterize the growth of the private employment agency industry: rapid expansion of the industry since the mid-1990s and the emergence of a small group of transnational agencies that are leading the globalization of the sector; strong growth in agency work in many economies both in numerical terms and penetration rates, with some important market-to-market variations; nationally distinctive sectoral and occupational patterns of agency worker placement, although data illustrate a general increase in employment beyond the traditional areas of manufacturing and clerical work, especially in private services sectors; broadly similar age and gender trends across the leading markets, including a gradual increase in the representation of female and older workers everywhere, except in Japan, where men are more represented in the temporary workforce than before. Overall, the identification of these general trends should be supplemented in future by a more detailed study of its sectoral aspects. In addition, research should cover wider issues such as problems faced by temporary agency workers as regards conditions of work, occupational safety and health, training, social protection coverage, and so on.

The fourth chapter has characterized the ways in which the three parties in the triangular employment relationship – user enterprises, the agencies themselves and agency-placed workers – have fared in the current economic crisis. The precise consequences for each actor depend on where in the world they are and in what industrial sector they work. There is an uneven geography to the economic crisis, as those countries with a high proportion of their temporary agency workers placed in manufacturing sectors – such as Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States – have been particularly affected. Nevertheless, the following preliminary lessons can be drawn: workers placed through agencies have been among the first to lose their jobs in the economic crisis; while agency-placed workers have fulfilled a pressure-valve role, protecting “core” workforces from the initial consequences of the economic crisis, there is evidence that core workforce employment is now under threat; private employment agencies have made changes to their businesses as a consequence of the economic crisis, closing some branches and reducing their workforces in some countries and in some industrial sectors; governments have come under pressure from a range of social actors to make changes to the benefits and social assistance provided to workers placed through agencies, although reform has been slow and piecemeal where it has occurred at all; it is generally believed that an upturn in the demand for the services of private employment agencies will be among one of the first indicators of the beginning of the end of the economic crisis, as has been the case in past economic downturns; there is consensus that the private employment agency industry will continue to internationalize and diversify after the recession.