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EU Member Governments󰡑 Execution of EU Directive on Temporary Agency Work: with a Special Reference to Sweden and Spain

  • Journal of the Scandinavian Society of Korea
  • Abbr : JSSK
  • 2016, (17), pp.39-88
  • Publisher : The Scandinavian Society of Korea
  • Research Area : Social Science > Area Studies > North Europe(Scandinavian)

Cho, Donmoon 1

1가톨릭대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Although the EU had tried to establish three directives for non-regular workers at the same time, it took another 100 years or so to establish the Directive on temporary agency work after the other two directives. Given that the fierce confrontation of interests between labor and capital as well as strong opposition from some member governments retarded the establishment of the Directive, its implementation in member countries was not expected to be so smooth. This study analyzes how the Directive was implemented in member countries across various market economy models, and then delves into how distinct characteristics of labor market affected the regulation of temporary agency activities and the protection of temporary agency workers with special reference to Scandinavian Sweden of flexicurity model and Mediterranean Spain of in-flexicurity. The findings of this study can be boiled down to four points. First, the EU evaluates the effect of the Directive positively, while the effect was bigger in such countries as Anglo-American countries and East European ones which were not equipped with effective regulation system for temporary agency work. Second, the EU relied on national laws and regulations in evaluating member countries’ implementation of the Directive, so that it tended to underestimate the level of regulation on temporary agency work in those countries where labor market used to be regulated by collective contracts rather than the laws and regulations. Third, those countries such as Mediterranean Spain which rejected any derogation from the principle of equal treatment verified their will to protect temporary agency workers, while the acceptance of derogation did not necessarily mean abandoning the protection of temporary agency workers. It is because such derogation as the temporary agency’s wage guarantee of temporary workers during the waiting period could mean more benefit than the equal treatment principle which regulates the wage of temporary workers only in assignments. Fourth, those countries such as Scandinavian Sweden which takes advantage of collective contract derogation has maintained the self-regulation system of labor market on the basis of collective contracts. Since any change in a part such as the regulation of temporary agency work might jeopardize the equilibrium of the whole self-regulation system, the selection of collective contract derogation could be called strategic choice to maintain the equilibrium.

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