Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-20-Speech-3-338"
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"en.20021120.11.3-338"2
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"Mr President, I would like to add my congratulations to the rapporteur, Mrs van den Burg, and members of other groups who have helped steer us towards what hopefully will be a successful vote tomorrow.
We have heard that provision varies from Member State to Member State in terms of the protection afforded to temporary agency workers. That is indeed the case and that justifies the laying down of a basic framework of protection for temporary workers throughout the European Union, but I would also underline that it will include the accession countries. The numbers of such workers are increasing in those countries, but as far as I am aware they have no existing protection for temporary agency workers.
My second point is that tonight we are pursuing a strategy which has been under way since 1997, when we adopted the employment strategy at European Union level. In the adaptability pillar of that strategy, to which all Member States have signed up, we agreed to strike a balance between flexibility for companies, of all shapes and sizes, and a degree of security for the workers working within, and moving between, those enterprises. We have already dealt with that in relation to the earlier proposals on part-time work and on fixed-term contract working. We were warned at the time of the part-working directive that it would cost hundreds of thousands of part-time jobs, particularly for women workers within the European Union. We now have the evidence and the opposite is the case, because part-time work has come to be seen as a positive option. What we are working on now will mean that temporary agency work will also become a positive option in the future.
We are often told that it is already a positive option, and that many people want to be temporary agency workers. Only 10% of the 61,000 temporary agency workers in my own region say that they are temporary agency workers by choice. We can increase that percentage quite significantly if we get it right and bring this proposal to a successful conclusion.
We should pursue that balance between flexibility and security. Mr Harbour says we have not done it yet but I would say to him that this is the first stage. This is the opening gambit and not the end game. This is a codecision dossier. We have a long way to go, through common position, through second reading and no doubt into conciliation. We can continue to pursue that balance between flexibility and security.
In my own group, two issues have been of great importance at this first reading stage. One is 'day one comparability'. I therefore hope that Amendment No 42 will be carried tomorrow. The second is the comparator. To whom is the temporary agency worker compared in terms of pay and basic employment conditions? None of the potential solutions we currently have on paper are that elegant, but they get us through first reading and I am sure we will be getting back to that at the common position and second reading stages."@en1
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