Published on 18th September 2023
Sectoral Social Dialogue and collective bargaining have long been a central component of the Social Market Economy in Europe and a clear priority for the European Commission. Recent economic and labour market challenges reaffirmed the importance of sectoral social partners in developing innovative solutions to help companies and workers adapt to change. At the same time, the role and capacity of social partners, both employers’ organisations and trade unions, vary considerably between countries, sectors and regions in Europe.
The EU sectoral social partners of the temporary agency work sector, the World Employment Confederation-Europe and UNI Europa, decided to launch a joint project to strengthen the capacity of sectoral social partners in shaping appropriate, less restrictive regulation and in developing solutions for training and social protection in temporary agency work.
The project’s concrete outcomes will be practical guidance for employers and trade unions, including approaches, tools and methods for strengthening the capacity of the sectoral social partners. Seminars will be organised to enable the exchange and discussion of good practices, focusing on Southern Europe and Central and Eastern Europe.
Building upon current good practices and past joint projects
The project fully aligns with the 2021-2023 work programme adopted by the EU Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Temporary Agency Work sector. Under that programme, WEC-Europe and UNI Europa agreed to address specific capacity-building needs in the temporary agency sector while advancing the discussion on the critical role the temporary agency social partners play in job matching and labour market resilience.
The three themes of appropriate regulation, social protection, and skills and vocational training identified for the capacity building project were chosen to build on another joint project conducted by the sectoral social partners for temporary agency work in 2019-2020 on “Social Innovation in the temporary agency work industry ”. The capacity-building project will follow up on the conclusions and joint recommendations signed by the World Employment Confederation-Europe and UNI Europa in February 2022, aiming at building more dynamic, inclusive and resilient labour markets following the Covid-19 crisis.
Joint projects of the EU Sectoral Social Dialogue for the Temporary Agency Work sector are funded by the European Commission under the EU budget available for promoting European social dialogue. A public call for tenders is now opened to find an external contractor to carry out the research project and present its findings. The project duration foreseen is 24 months.
Further details can be found in the call for tenders specifications.
All interested applicants must send in their application by 13 October 2023, to Dimitris Theodorakis, Temporary Agency Work Director at UNI Europa.
