Staffing companies operating in Germany will be able to mitigate the effects of new regulations going through the German legislature, according to a lawyer specialising in the German staffing market.

The new law, which tightens regulations on staffing companies, was passed by the Bundestag in October, and is expected to be considered by the German upper house by the end of November before coming into force this April.

The new regulations include:

• An 18-month assignment limit for temporary workers
• Equal treatment including equal pay for temporary workers
• A ban on the use of temporary workers as strike breakers

Thomas Leister, partner and director of German operations at law firm Osborne Clarke, told Recruiter that should the new law go through unchanged as he expects, staffing agencies will be able to mitigate the effects of the new regulations on both the 18-month assignment limit for temporary workers and on equal pay.

In the case of the assignment limit, Leister said the new law will allow staffing companies to simply replace or ‘flip’ one temporary worker with another before the 18-month limit is reached. In addition, “the same temporary worker can be repeatedly placed at the same workplace, if at least three months have elapsed since the last assignment at the hirer”, said Leister.

Similarly, while the new law will limit the length of time many temporary workers (those subject to a collective bargaining agreement) can be excluded from equal pay for up to nine months of continuous work at one hirer, and 15 months in some circumstances, by replacing one temporary worker with another before the time limit is reached Leister said staffing companies will be able to avoid having to grant equal pay to those workers.

The effect of both these ways around the new regulations is “the same role can be permanently occupied with temporary workers”, said Leister.

However, Leister said the new laws won’t necessarily mean that temporary worker can be ‘flipped’ indefinitely. “It will be up to the courts to decide,” he added.

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