Agency work could play a vital role in driving Europe’s economic recovery, according to Eurociett.

This week’s Czech Presidency conference in Prague on ‘Implementing flexicurity in times of crisis’ will demonstrate how agency work can reduce the negative impacts of the economic crisis by:

• Enhancing competitiveness by providing positive conditions for economic sustainability, thereby securing permanent jobs
• Helping the transition between unemployment and work
• Offeing a flexible form of labour that allows more people to enter the labour market
• Enhancing worker employability through training and investment
• Effectively matching supply to demand in the workplace

Annemarie Muntz, president at Eurociett, says: “In times of economic crisis, governments should take advantage of the contribution of agency work to better functioning labour markets.

“Agency work embodies the principle of flexicurity – as a highly regulated industry, we provide both flexibility and work security to people and companies. Our industry should have full access to governmental programmes and subsidies established in the framework of active labour market policies.

“Furthermore, the level of regulation on agency work should be adapted (eg by lifting the ban on the use of agency work in the public sector in Spain) to unlock the industry’s contribution to facilitating transitions in the labour market and to prepare the ground for an improved job-creating economic recovery.”