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UNI Europa was well represented with members of the SOYSAL-IS, TEZ-KOOP-IS, Turkish Communications Workers Union (HABER-IS), TURK-KOOP-IS, BASIN-IS as well as the DISK and HAK-ISÇI confederations present.



The roundtable was funded by the European Commission department TAIEX which funds social partner events in EU candidate countries. During the meeting participants heard interventions from the European Commission on the history and format of European Social Dialogue as well as the EU TAW Directive. Mr Akcan, President of the Turkish Communications Union intervened on behalf of the Turkish unions to give a union perspective on labour relations and social dialogue in Turkey as well as a profile of the TAW sector. Mr Akcan along with other union representatives emphasised the crucial need to change the labour laws in Turkey regarding union rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining. He explained how currently social dialogue is almost non-existent in Turkey and that there needed to be changes in the Turkish legal framework to allow union to become equal partners with the employers and vis-à-vis the government. The Turkish unions argued that without these changes opening the labour market to temporary agencies could lead to serious abuses and problems between workers.



Bernadette Ségol, UNI Europa’s regional secretary presented the process, which led to the EU TAW Directive emphasising that the regulation’s principle aim is the protection of temporary agency workers. In addition, she underlined UNI Europa’s position that:

• temporary agency workers should never cover strikers
• no fees should ever be charged to temporary agency workers
• the need to define that the agency is the employer in all situations
• temporary agency work should lead to permanent work and never become the primary type of employment.
• temporary agencies should never become the only way for workers to access the labour market.
• the principles of equal pay and equal treatment are crucial to ensure permanent workers are not undercut by temporary agency workers and that temporary agency work does not become the ‘cheap’ option for employment.
• temporary agency workers need strong union and increased representation.
• the derogations indicated in the EU TAW Directive are not the rule and should only be applied if deemed necessary by the social partners.
• some restrictions to the use of temporary agency work are justified.

In addition, UNI Europa was happy to invite two of its affiliates from the FNV union in Netherlands Mr Celil Çoban and the MSZOSZ union in Hungary, Mr Károly Gyorgy. Mr Çoban who is originally of Turkish origin explained how social dialogue in the TAW sector had developed in the Netherlands explaining the range of collective agreements signed by the Dutch social partners on issues such as vocational training and working time as well as the FNV campaign on decent work. My Gyorgy reported on the TAW sector in Hungary stating that since the legislation was brought in in 2001 the number of temp agencies operating had more than tripled. He referred to the UNI Europa/Eurociett roundtable in Budapest in 2007 which led to a proper debate between the social partners on how to better regulate this sector. He explained how temps had been the first to lost their jobs in the crisis and how temporary agency work is often not a free choice for workers. He emphasised the need to define a limited time period for contracts, to ensure full coverage of temps under protective regulations, to ensure better access to training as well as the insecurity and increase stress seen by this type of employment.



Representatives from the Turkish Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Turkish Public Employment Service Organisation also intervened and were active in the roundtable.



Please find the all documents of the meeting at the following link:



http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/taiex/dyn/taiex-events/library/detail_en.jsp?EventID=42998