How temping is catching

Amid allegations of companies exploiting workers hired through temping agencies, Brian O'Connellput himself forward as a candidate to test the waters

MY IDEA WAS simple enough. With more than 30,000 workers in Ireland going through one or other of the 520 employment agencies here, I wanted to experience life as a contract, or "temp" worker, for myself. I called and e-mailed a number of the leading agencies, explaining my need for short-term employment, and asking if they could do anything for me.

I felt I wasn't an entirely unattractive prospect - I can touch type, am a stickler for punctuality and have a pleasant enough phone manner. While not exactly a team player, I work well under pressure, and am no stranger to long hours. I've also been known to make a killer cup of tea.

"Oh, one other thing," I said, "I'd like to write about my experience afterwards." Not one agency was able to accommodate me.

I made initial contacts with Kelly Services (who helped facilitate almost 900,000 hours of temporary contracts last year) and CPL, two of the largest in the country. Both came back declining to allow me to join their ranks, or even to speak with any of their contract workers.

One e-mail from a PR representative for Kelly Services was indicative of the responses: "I have been doing my best to get a temping placement for you with Kelly Services but unfortunately the approval that I need for this has to come from a guy who is in the States . . ." Some cited legal reasons, others contractual difficulties, while many wouldn't take my call, or bounced me from department to department. In all, I contacted six agencies: two responded with some basic information, two haven't yet responded, and two said they would get back to me but haven't so far.

Mainly, I got the feeling that employment agencies were wary of any sort of media attention. Why?

Over the past year to 18 months, a spokesperson for the Irish Congress of Trade Unions said, they have noticed a huge upsurge in the number of agencies which offer temporary workers in Ireland. The use of agencies is not a new phenomenon in the Irish marketplace and many companies use them for legitimate staffing reasons. For instance, a worker may be out sick for a number of weeks and agency cover might be needed, or seasonal demands might mean more staff are needed for short periods of time.

"A worrying trend we are seeing developing," said an ICTU spokesperson, "is that some employers are using agencies to effectively bring in cheaper workers who have less rights and can be dismissed at a moment's notice." In other words, certain employers see agency workers as a legitimate way to sidestep existing legislation and reduce staffing costs. ICTU has launched a campaign calling for equal treatment of workers in Ireland, regardless of whether they are direct employees or agency workers.

"You cannot have two truck drivers say, doing the same work, and one of them is on €10 an hour [through an agency] and the other is on €20 directly from the employer," says a spokesperson. "At the moment that situation can exist and there is nothing in our law to prevent it continuing."

ON ITS WEBSITE, ICTU carries a video of a shop steward, Conor O'Gorman, describing his experience working in the construction industry. "I've been working in Dublin for about three years now, since I came here from Australia, and the majority of that time I've been working as an agency worker for one of the larger construction agencies in Dublin," he says. "It's had its ups and downs, and I was elected shop steward on the last site. One of my members on the site was working seven days a week and only paid a single rate of pay for Sundays. I rang the agency and asked them why he wasn't being paid overtime rates, and they said they felt he didn't deserve it! One thing I have noticed in all my experience is that foreign nationals are exploited more than others."

Radic Sawicki, a 30-year-old electronics graduate from Poland, arrived in Ireland in 2004 and initially worked in warehouses for Tesco before moving on to work for Musgrave Group. In 2007, he began campaigning for better rights for agency workers at the food wholesaler's plant in Dublin, and published a report, supported by the Independent Workers Union, in which he says terms and conditions were hugely different for agency workers as opposed to direct employees of the company.

Foreign nationals coming here looking for work are often in a vulnerable position, and the general appeal of using the services of agencies, which have built up good contacts, is obvious, Sawicki says. "It's not easy for immigrants to find jobs here directly and so the majority will use agencies. Of course, this means a good deal for the agencies, and a good deal for the employer, but not a good deal for the worker, as I found out. I was on less pay and worse conditions than employees working directly for the company." Sawicki no longer works for Musgrave and has now taken up a position with an ecological company organising exhibitions.

Ex-Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins has also been a vociferous critic of employment agencies in Ireland who place workers on temporary contracts with reduced conditions. "The situation that was brought to my attention in Musgraves was one where agency workers were paid roughly half the rate of directly employed workers. And of course agency workers have no pension or sick benefits. I have no problem with workers getting placed in employment through agencies - it's the conditions and exploitation that goes with it that I find objectionable. So many agencies have flourished here with the growth of the economy and availability of foreign workers. It's a despicable situation, and reminds me of the bad old days of construction 20 or 30 years ago, when the supplier would get three or four pounds an hour, and pay two pounds to the worker."

When contacted, Musgrave said: "As of today there are 124 agency staff working across all our depots, totalling 9 per cent of our operational workforce. Our agency staff are supplied by three recruitment companies and the terms and conditions of these staff are agreed by them directly with their employment agencies." In a subsequent statement, the company rejected "any wrongdoing in respect of any agency staff . . . and also reject any suggestion that agency workers are expected to work longer hours or do harder work than their permanent colleagues."

Since September 2006, the company has been engaged in negotiations facilitated by the Labour Relations Commission, which has resulted in the hiring of over 40 staff on a permanent basis, most of them former agency workers. It also has plans to recruit a further 60 staff, again many of them ex-agency workers.

Rafao Kamainski, a 33-year-old from Poland, has been in Ireland for six months. Having sent hundreds of copies of his CV directly to employers with little success, he eventually secured work in Ireland through an employment agency.

"This is my fourth or fifth job here. I might work one month in one place and then they will send me to another," he says, "Mainly I work as a casual worker covering someone's position when he/she is on holidays or sick. I estimate that I earn about 20-30 per cent less than regular workers on the same position.Sometimes I get paid less for overtime. For me though, the more important thing is the lack of security in the job." Kamainski is currently working in a meat factory earning €9 per hour, whereas he says directly employed workers get between €11 and €14 an hour for the same work. "My plan is to use the agency for a year and then try to get a Fás course and more secure work. At the end of this week I will be told where I am next week, and I have never met Irish guys doing this type of work. Only foreign workers."

ON THE OTHER HAND, employment agencies have their benefits. Emily Ahern (33), from Cork, used several agencies to gain experience and contacts in the workplace, and later applied this knowledge when aiming for a permanent position in her desired area.

"Basically I used the agencies to get a little bit of experience while I looked for a 'real' job. My gripe with agencies would be that they never really successfully managed to place me in a role I wanted. It was always the same story. I told them at interview the area I wanted to work in, and then they promise you the sun, moon and stars. Shortly they come back with an offer of work, saying 'We know this isn't what you would like ideally but . . ." Ahern worked the agencies for two years before settling on a permanent contract. I did everything from data entry to filing. The thing I found though is that although the company are only committed to taking you on short term, often they will have other staffing needs."

All in all, Ahern says successfully using agency companies depends on your level of expectation. She gives her perspective: "They are undoubtedly hard to deal with in my experience and are not as 'all singing and dancing' as they pretend to be. But I wanted experience and I think if you have a plan and remain hard-nosed, it can work out." Ahern now works for a Dublin firm as a training co-ordinator, and say her days of using agencies are behind her.

Just as I've given up on becoming an agency worker myself, one of the firms I had contacted earlier calls back. It specialises in providing manual workers in the Munster region.

"We understand you're looking for short-term work," the agency employee says. "That's right," I say, "a few weeks just." "How are you with chickens?" "Sure I'll give it a go. Do you mind if I write about it afterwards?" "We'll have to check. Let us get back to you on that."