Temping 9-to-5
I am a temp, and it seems that the EU plans to put my job at risk by insisting that temps get the same working rights as permanent staff after just six weeks. This would put the jobs of 250,000 people in positions such as mine at risk.
I currently temp at a large, well-known company which will remain unnamed on this blog. I have been there for more than two months now, and recently moved to a new role within the company - with a pay rise. This job was the first ‘real’ job I have had. Before I got it, I had been unemployed [though not claiming benefits] for nearly a month, and getting quite depressed over my apparent inability to get a job. But then I signed up to a new agency [some are seriously crap], had an interview the next day, and then started work the following Monday.
But if this new EU law had gone through, I doubt that I - or many of the other new graduates who temp - would be in their current jobs, earning money and gaining skills. It is impossible to suggest that companies would take these sorts of risks and hire completely inexperienced people such as I was and most new graduates are if this law went through. It’s not like I’m anti me getting paid more, but I can’t see how this will really help anyone. Instead of hiring temps, companies would just expect their permanent staff to do more. And everyone would suffer.
Of course, temping is not all great. You have a lack of permanence, and your job is not always secure, and you usually lack some of the benefits. But you have a far greater freedom of work. You can move as you like, with far fewer strings attached, and on a whim. Some prefer temping, some don’t.
But this EU plan will just cost temps their jobs, and cost new graduates the chance to gain experience.
UPDATE: It’s been delayed - but for how long?
Trade unions reacted furiously after John Hutton, the Business Secretary, persuaded EU ministers to back off from a threat to force Britain to give temps full employment rights after just six weeks in the job.
But a vast majority of EU nations vowed to keep pushing for the measure “within weeks”, and some suggested that Britain was only given a delay to avoid inflaming opinion during the ratification of the EU Reform Treaty. (The Times)
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