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Employment ministers meet today for temporary work directive

05 Dec 2007

Employment ministers meet today for temporary work directive European employment ministers are meeting today to try and work out a deal that will implement the Agency Workers Directive, which will give more rights to students who are working in temporary jobs.

The directive has been around since 2002 but has not been implemented. If accepted by all countries, temporary workers in Europe will be entitled to the same rights as permanent employees.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Agency workers have been vulnerable to real injustice for far too long. The government should understand the strength of union feeling on this issue."

Britain is one of the only EU members that is not keen on the directive being enforced and will try and negotiate that British temporary workers only get full rights after six weeks of working in a job.

The directive has become a hot topic in employment recently. The Recruitment and Employment Confederation recently urged the government to ensure temporary jobs are created not lost as a result of the talks.

This was echoed by the Commercial Workers Union (CWU), which said that Britain is "behind the times" on its treatment of temporary workers and that the government needs to "consult its conscience" and put an end to the "injustice".

The CWU represents 300,000 workers across the communications industry.

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