The profound precariousness of work through temporary work agency

Abstract

The increase in the number of atypical work contracts in the field of industry relationships, as part of a major European trend towards gaining more flexibility in the labour market, is significant and cannot be overlooked in most member countries of the European Union. This finding is corroborated by the recent surveys conducted across Europe, that reveal the prevalence of these flexible ways of organizing work, over the archetypal template of the individual work contract. However, this range of atypical contractual arrangements and the great number of versions and subcategories they include, are describing a number of negative features that seem to characterize these new forms of employment. Since the field of atypical employment is complex and we cannot analyse the incidence of these negative effects for all the atypical methods of employment, in the following article we will limit ourselves to explore the pressing issues related to the system of temporary work through work agencies. As we shall see, all aspects of the salary field, of health and safety at work and the level of insecurity and instability of labour through temporary work agency reveals a strong character associated with this kind of precarious employment.

Keywords

• employment
• temporary agency work
• precarious work
• atypical worker