EU social partners join forces to enhance social dialogue in temporary agency work

Funded by the EU, the project ‘Capacity Building in the Temporary Agency Work Sector’ aims to enhance the social dialogue capacity of national social partners and explore the transferability of good practices in the areas of social protection, working conditions, training, and appropriate regulation. 24 representatives from the sector across Europe participated, including partners from several Eastern European countries. Discussions revolved around training and skills acquisition, as well as social protection, and were informed by a survey and interviews conducted by the project consultants on these themes.

Participants reviewed and discussed several best practices in terms of hiring, up- and re-skilling, particularly among youth, people over 55 years of age, and refugees or asylum seekers. One highlighted project was Travi, a training fund established in 2018 in Belgium and financed through social partners’ contributions. Travi launched the “Test Your Selfie”, an online tool to address the lack of soft skills among young jobseekers. It has since become available to schoolteachers for classroom use.

Professionals working in the sector also emphasised the need for courses to be adapted to concrete job openings rather than remaining overly general. While job candidates often need to acquire new skills for a job, employers should not expect perfectly trained workers on the first day of their placement. On-the-job training is equally key to staff retention.

The power of collaboration

Regarding the success factors for reaching underemployed groups, social partners underscored the importance of collaborating with public employment services, schools and non-governmental organisations as well as forming partnerships with public institutions at the municipal, regional and national levels.

Programmes such as “Welcome and Work!” in Italy illustrate such successful partnerships. Through this initiative, migrant workers were recruited for jobs and offered assistance for their integration through the provision of personalised support, vocational training, language classes and accommodation. The project would not have had the same results were it not for the fact that it was managed jointly by unions and employers, through national collective bargaining, with close collaboration with local authorities and international institutions like the UNHCR.

The workshop discussions also revealed that the transferability of practices across different countries requires breaking projects into components rather than applying them as a whole. Similarly, experimenting at the micro/local level can be helpful before seeking to build national-level activities and partnerships. Social partners endeavouring to replicate or adjust good practices need to demonstrate their feasibility by bringing both future employers and job seekers to enterprises that have successfully implemented a program. Training projects should align with workers’ needs, their career aspirations, personal commitments, availability and limited financial means.

Participants concluded that strong social dialogue frameworks are vital for any ambitious project that seeks to match labour market needs and skills needs. The discussions in Milan will inform the preparation for the next workshop planned within the framework of the joint project. The work will culminate in a final report to further enhance the capacity of social partners in the temporary agency work sector and ensure that they can be involved in organising fair, inclusive and sustainable training programmes.

Find the presentations from the workshop below:

• Welcome and Work project
• Capacity Building in the Temporary Agency Work sector
• Territorial employment and skills project
• What are the opportunities of Form.Integra?