Job security for all creates rigid labour markets and impedes business competitiveness, the president of the International Confederation of Private Employ- ment Agencies (CIETT) told recruiters in Dublin.

Instead, a modern economy must provide employment security and flexible workforces, or "flexicurity", said Joel Biller, who is also senior vice president of special projects for global recruiting giant Manpower.

"Flexicurity can be a reality," Biller told delegates from 24 countries at CIETT's annual conference on 17 and 18 May. "Employment security is achieved through flexible labour markets, and assures all workers that life will be active, full and rewarding."

Recruitment agencies are crucial to providing employment security, said Biller. Flexicurity was a key theme of the event, with representatives of the recruitment industry, the European Commission and European trade unions debating the correct balance of work security and flexibility.

However, certain key elements must be in place for flexicurity to succeed, Biller urged. Workers must have access to ongoing education and skill training, for example. Also, social security benefits "must be portable and permanent, and they must continue between jobs", he said. In addition, legal structures must allow "a variety of flexible arrangements to meet a range of employment needs".

Providers of temporary labour help workers through various stages of transition, he said: from education to the world of work, between jobs and between life stages such as time off for parenthood back to employment. "The heart of flexibility is transition," Biller said, "and nobody does that better than we do. We could call ourselves the labour transition industry instead of the agency workers industry."

Biller told Recruiter that CIETT neither seeks an end to all labour regulation nor does it promote "a common policy" for all member countries. "Our objective is to achieve as flexible a labour market as possible," he said, "recognising the differences in each national economy."

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