Quebec employers are increasingly resorting to placement agencies to quickly meet their need for occasional workers. While this new business model is gaining in popularity and offers many advantages, it also upsets the traditional bipartite “employer-employee” relationship. Thus, since the placement agency functions as an intermediary between the client and the worker, a tripartite employment relationship is created. This raises the issue as to whether the employer-employee relationship remains intact and, if so, then who is responsible for the source deductions. The Court of Québec recently answered these questions in the case of Agence Océanica inc. v. Agence du revenu du Québec.¹

FACTS

In this case, the placement agency, Océanica (hereinafter “Océanica”), was in the business of providing nursing staff for the short-term needs of hospitals, residential and long-term care centres (CHSLDs) and local community service centres (CLSCs) (hereinafter the “clients”). It operated as an intermediary between the clients and nurses: clients informed Océanica of their nursing staff requirements and Océanica did the recruiting. At the clients’ workplace, the nurses received their instructions from the clients, particularly in terms of the duties to be performed by them and their work methods, acting under the clients’ supervision. Océanica billed the clients for the nurses’ compensation, plus an amount for Océanica’s profit margin. Based mainly on the testimony of the nurses working for Océanica, it was apparent that they had no written employment contract with Océanica, they bore no risk of profit or loss, and they paid for their employment expenses themselves, without reimbursement by Océanica.  

Océanica considered the nurses to be self-employed workers rather than employees. Thus, the compensation paid to the nurses would not be subject to the applicable source deductions in Quebec, i.e. for the QPP (Québec Pension Plan), QPIP (Québec Parental Insurance Plan), HSF (Health Services Fund) and CNT (Commission des normes du travail).

On the other hand, the Agence du revenu du Québec (hereinafter the “ARQ”) submitted that the nurses were not self-employed workers, but rather employees, and therefore assessed Océanica for the amounts due, plus penalties and interest, on account of the aforementioned source deductions on the compensation paid to the nurses.

Océanica appealed the assessment by the ARQ to the Court of Québec for a ruling on whether the nurses were employees or self-employed workers.

THE COURT OF QUÉBEC’S DECISION

After conducting a general review of the definitions of the concepts of employer and employee under various tax statutes, the Court admitted that there was not much substance to these definitions and that they were not very helpful in characterizing such a complex relationship as the one that existed between Océanica and its nurses. Nevertheless, the Court found that the payment of compensation was of particular importance for a person to qualify as an “employer” for purposes of the Taxation Act ² (Quebec).

As for the concept of the employment contract under the Civil Code of Québec, ³ the Quebec case law has noted on many occasions that it must be analyzed on the basis of its three components, namely the performance of work, the compensation, and the relationship of subordination between employer and employee, with subordination being the main criterion for a finding of employee status. However, in the context of a tripartite relationship involving an intermediary, as opposed to the classic employment relationship between two parties, determining who is the true employer based on the subordination criteria may be difficult. Instead, a more general and broader analysis of the criterion of the employees’ legal subordination must be conducted and other criteria should also be considered, such as the selection of the employees, hiring, training, discipline, evaluation, etc. Thus, the Court took a more general approach to the relationship between Océanica and its nurses which was not limited to the nurses’ functions and to the degree of supervision exercised by Océanica over them.

The fact that some of the classic functions of the employer (i.e. recruiting, training and supervision) were shared between Océanica and the clients did not change the nature of the nurses’ work per se. Indeed, if the clients had not been there to offer employment and Océanica had not functioned as the link between the clients and nurses, the nurses would have been unable to offer their services. The nurses were integrated into the clients’ businesses and acted under their supervision. The nurses were not administering a business. To claim that the nurses were self-employed workers because Océanica, by itself, did not fulfill all the attributes of a classic employer would have led to an absurd result. For these reasons, the Court held that it was an error to claim that Océanica’s nurses were self-employed workers.

Therefore, the Court found that the nurses were employees of Océanica. Indeed, the judge stated that by inserting itself into the classic relationship between the clients and the nurses, Océanica assumed some of the employer’s functions, such as the recruiting and payment of the nurses’ compensation. In this regard, the Court found that Océanica acted as the clients’ mandatary and had entered into binding obligations on their behalf. As a result, Océanica became responsible for the clients’ tax liabilities, in accordance with the concept of mandate set out in the Civil Code of Québec. ⁴

COMMENTS

The Court essentially took a two-pronged approach to this decision. Firstly, it dismissed Océanica’s argument that the nurses were self-employed workers. Secondly, since the nurses were found to be employees, the Court had to determine who was liable for the source deductions. The Court strongly emphasized the role of the person paying the compensation in reaching the conclusion that the nurses were employees of Océanica, since Océanica paid them their wages directly.

At first sight, this decision confirms the role of the employment agency as an employer of workers and its obligation to make the source deductions in Quebec from the compensation paid to them. Thus, employment agencies should remember that they must be vigilant with respect to the status of their personnel and the tax obligations for which they are responsible.

However, the Court’s conclusion regarding the mandator-mandatary relationship between Océanica and the clients may lead to confusion. Indeed, it is unclear what effect this conclusion would have in a situation in which the placement agency is delinquent and fails to make the requisite source deductions.

Finally, it should be noted that Océanica has appealed this decision to the Québec Court of Appeal. Hopefully, the Court of Appeal will take the opportunity to clarify the conclusion of the Court of Québec. We will be following these developments closely. Until then, caution is advised…

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A stubbornly tough job market, combined with stagnant or decreased funding for training programs, is making it harder for area job seekers to bridge the “skills gap.”

With college costs hitting historic highs, agencies such as Warren County One Stop Career Center are trying to meet the needs of more job seekers despite historically weak funding. Locally, programs for job seekers have spent stimulus money provided at the onset of the Great Recession, although the programs themselves remain in high demand.

Chris Hunsinger, director of Warren County One Stop Career Center, said his agency’s funding has fallen 42 percent over the past 12 years, from $1,255,755 in 2000 to $725,999 last year.

“We had stimulus money, and that literally doubled our budget in 2009,” Hunsinger said. “I can tell you the numbers we’re seeing in terms of customer visits continue to rise. And if you do any research on unemployment, one of the phenomenons that you see — and it’s played out a little bit recently — is that even though the number of jobs is going up, the unemployment rate goes up as well, because more people enter the labor market.”

So more people are seeking to build resumes, conduct job searches, and in cases where their skills don’t match the demands of available jobs, get training for new careers, Hunsinger said. The squeeze has pushed organizations like One Stop to find alternatives, and a new e-learning option is helping.

“We still send people to nurse’s training and some other training courses, but because we don’t have the resources we used to have, we really need to look to programs that are more cost-effective, like the e-learning, where we can send 90 percent of our training customers and it only costs 10 percent of our training budget,” he said.

Easy and inexpensive

One Stop center has offered online courses for a while, Hunsinger said. But only recently did the agency start offering professional certifications by contracting with New York Wired’s Metrix Learning program.

Through Metrix Learning, job seekers are able to earn certification in programs such as Quickbooks,

Microsoft Office, Six Sigma and others, explained New York Wired CEO Brian Lee. He launched the company in 2008, at the onset of the Great Recession.

“In 2008, we were in New York state, and in 2013, we’re doing some work in 15 states,” Lee said.

Much of the increased business, he said, comes from programs like One Stop centers, where administrators have realized they can use online learning to meet training needs with smaller budgets.

“A blind man could make this case,” Lee said. “If you would like training in something called QuickBooks — 85 percent of all small businesses in America use a software accounting system called QuickBooks — if you go to a traditional trainer, it’s going to cost $800 to $1,000 for training and certification.”

Through One Stop, the state pays a reduced fee — because of the online nature of the course — of about $140 for the training, Lee said. The state also pays for the certification exam, which is taken at the One Stop office under the supervision of a proctor.

Hunsinger said the programs have been embraced by job seekers because the learning can happen anywhere at any time.

That’s what attracted Cory Heyman of Glens Falls to the program.

After high school, she went to college but didn’t finish her degree, mainly because she knew she wanted to train horses and didn’t think a college degree would help with that.

“Then I had a family and children, and I stopped the horse business to raise my family and help my husband with the Lake George hotel that he owns,” Heyman said.

But once the kids started going to school, Heyman decided she had the time to take on a part-time job during the winter months. What she lacked were the computer skills she was seeing in job advertisements.

“I didn’t have enough education to do anything meaningful,” she said.

A visit to the One Stop center put Heyman on the path to certification in QuickBooks, a program she had used at the hotel.

“Once I started taking the course, I realized I wasn’t using much of it — just basic functions,” Heyman said.

Online courses weren’t the only avenue she considered in her quest to become more employable.

“I looked into college,” she said. “I had one person quote me $30,000, and it would be a two-year degree. There are so many college graduates out there looking for jobs, I don’t think that’s going to give me enough of an edge. I think this puts me in a different category, as far as what an employer is looking for.”

Through Metrix, she has taken 82 courses and earned certifications in Microsoft Excel, Word and, most recently, PowerPoint.

Her cost?

“Not a penny,” she said.

Many are looking

Lee, Hunsinger and Heyman all agreed online learning may not be for everyone. It takes motivated, disciplined students to commit to the work, since there is no scheduled class time. And because it’s a relatively new learning system, there isn’t a lot of data on how many Metrix students land jobs because of the certifications they’ve earned.

“We’ve had some customers say it’s really helped them, and we’ve had other customers say it really hasn’t,” Hunsinger said.

Heyman is working with local employment agencies to keep her resume updated as she earns new certifications, but the job market has been difficult to crack, she said.

“There’s not really a whole lot out there,” she said. “I’m hoping the market gets better.”

Karen Howe, director of strategic placement for Keena Staffing, an employment agency in Queensbury, said the work is likely to pay off.

“I think (professional certifications) do hold merit, and if I’ve got two candidates, and I’ve got one that just has indicated on an application that, ‘Yes, I have intermediate skills with Outlook, Excel or whatever,’ and then I have a second person that has been certified, then I definitely am going to look at the individual that has been certified,” she said.

The One Stop center, located in Northway Plaza off Route 9 in Queensbury, isn’t the only local agency facing headwinds in the fight to get people back to work.

When Carollee Sipowicz became Adirondack regional manager of Northeast Career Planning in Glens Falls in 2001, the agency had 13 clients, and she was the only employee. Now, there are 12 employees, and the agency gets about 50 referrals each year.

At any given time, the agency serves an average of 175 clients through various programs, Sipowicz said.

Like the One Stop centers, Northeast Career Planning has used the last of its stimulus money, and the agency’s budget has not increased in recent years, despite the growing need for its programs. As a result, several programs have ceased, including one that, for more than two years, provided computer skills instruction at Crandall Public Library.

That program had nearly 2,000 participants in two classes, one for the general public and a more exclusive class for job seekers. Among the job seekers, 45 to 50 people ended up with jobs after taking the course, Sipowicz said.

From couch to office

The more common type of program offered at Northeast Career Planning is an eight-week class for job readiness provided to social services benefits recipients.

The class teaches employment basics, including interview skills, resume writing and how to conduct Internet job searches. But there is also some computer training, and participants are able to make use of the agency’s clothes closet, Sipowicz said.

“Students learn about first impressions and the importance of being well groomed and appropriately dressed,” she said. Most have some sort of disability.

Sipowicz said an average of 12 people land jobs through the program each year, and another 20 are placed in “work experience” programs, in which they work for nonprofit organizations to build job skills.

But the organization’s funding hasn’t changed in six years, despite increases in expenses such as teaching supplies, building costs and the price of computer programs for training students, Sipowicz said.

“We’re working at a deficit, but it’s a program that’s well worthwhile, so we’re sure it will pay off,” she said.

Like the Crandall Public Library computer course, other programs through Northeast Career Planning may have to end if the agency continues to be squeezed, she said.

The agency hopes to get a boost from the June 1 Freihofer’s Community Walk in Albany, immediately after the Freihofer’s Run for Women. Anyone can participate. Information on how to help can be found on the agency’s website.

Kathie D’Agostino knows where she would likely be today, if she hadn’t showed up for her first class at Northeast Career Planning back in 2005.

“I’d probably still be sitting on my couch, watching ‘Dr. Phil’ and ‘Oprah,’” she said.

That’s where she found herself after she got her first Social Security disability check.

It came after she injured her back on the job at a nursing home, where she was in charge of housekeeping for 12 years.

“When I was working at the nursing home, I thought everything was lined up,” D’Agostino said. “And one day, your life changes.”

That first disability check made her feel like the state had given up on her.

“I felt like, my life can’t be over right now. I wanted to do something.”

Eight years later, D’Agostino is a paid member of the Northeast Career Planning staff, and part of her job is to help incoming clients see there’s a better way to live.

“I tell them my story when they first come in,” she said. “I was where you are today. You can stay where you are, or you can move up.”

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A recent European Court of Justice ruling has provided important clarification that EU legislation protecting fixed-term workers does not apply to temporary workers supplied by an employment agency to an end-user company or organisation according to the Ius Laboris alliance of Employment law practitioners.

The case (Della Rocca v Poste Italiane SpA, C-290/2012), which originally came before the Naples District Court, concerned a temporary agency worker who had been supplied on a series of fixed-term contracts to an end user (the Italian postal service). When his assignment came to an end, he argued that the EU Fixed-term Work Directive (No.99/70) applied to him, with the result that he was now in an open-ended employment relationship with the end user. The Naples Court referred the matter to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling on the legal position.

In line with the defence submitted on behalf of the end user (represented by Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo e Soci), the ECJ clearly confirmed that the Fixed-term Work Directive should be interpreted as applying neither to the fixed-term employment relationship between a temporary worker and an employment agency, nor to the employment relationship between such a worker and an end-user organisation. The ECJ made clear, in addition, that the directive does not regulate commercial contracts between temporary employment agencies and end users.

According to the ECJ, it is apparent from the wording of the Fixed-term Work Directive that its scope does not extend to fixed-term workers placed by temporary employment agencies at the disposal of end users. The court was influenced by the fact that such workers are separately protected by the specific provisions of the EU Temporary Agency Workers Directive (No. 2008/104).

In light of this judgment, it is now clear that the Agency Workers Directive is not just aimed at regulating commercial contracts between employment agencies and end users, but rather concerns the general regulation of the tripartite relationships involved in temporary agency work. In contrast, the Fixed-term Work Directive applies only to workers who enter into an employment contract directly with an employer, which clearly excludes agency workers.

This clarification, while it may seem slightly obvious, is in fact a highly valuable development in the context of Italian employment law — particularly as national judges tend to subject commercial contracts for the supply of temporary staff to the same safeguards as fixed-term employment contracts.

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It was a cold and rainy afternoon in Tunisia in February of 2011.  My colleagues and I were on mission, driving from the Ministry of Employment to our next meeting. We got stuck!

The street was blocked with hundreds of youth chanting “3amal” (“work” in Arabic). They were outside one of the biggest public employment offices in Tunis demanding work, often violently.

The sad irony is that statistics from Tunisia’s public employment agency (ANETI) show that approximately 30 percent of the vacancies that it posted last year were not filled. How can this be true with hundreds of job seekers in the streets demanding jobs?  It could be due to skills mismatches; however, more research is needed.  We do know that public employment offices in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region lack the capacity to deliver employment services in an effective and efficient manner. Improving the delivery of public employment services will not guarantee a job for one of those youth chanting “3amal,” but it can certainly increase his or her chances of employment.

In an effort to expose government officials from the MENA region to international best practices on the delivery of public employment services, the World Bank organized a study tour in June 2011 to the United Kingdom’s Jobcentre Plus. Jobcentre Plus is a one-stop shop where job seekers can access a variety of services in a single place, thus reducing transaction and administrative costs, improving service delivery, and facilitating program monitoring and evaluation. In addition, Jobcentre Plus refers the hardest-to-place job seekers, or approximately 10 percent of the total registered unemployed, to private providers. These providers are paid a standard service fee plus a bonus for results (job outcome and sustainability).

“We learned a lot. We are thinking about adapting certain aspects of the system to improve the delivery of public employment services in our country,” replied a Senior Official from Morocco’s Ministry of Employment, when asked what he thought about the study tour. However, he explained that, unlike Jobcentre Plus, “(They) do not have the financial or the administrative capacity to provide most of the registered unemployed with counselling and job search assistance as well as manage benefits.” He could not be more right! Morocco’s caseload, or the number of registered unemployed divided by the total number of counselors at its public employment agency, is 15 times higher than that of the United Kingdom. Unfortunately, poor administrative capacity is a common feature of all public employment agencies in MENA.

So which other system for delivering public employment services might be more relevant to circumstances in MENA countries? The Nordic or the French model? Not at all! These countries, unlike those in MENA, spend up to five percent of their GDPs in the delivery of public employment services, all of which are provided exclusively by public employment agencies. In fact, Nordic countries are in the middle of reforming their own labor market policies, to involve private providers in the delivery of public employment services.

According to a recent Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report, Australia’s system for delivering employment services, Job Services Australia, may have contributed to the strong performance of the country’s labour market. Since 2009, Australia has had the highest employment rate among G7 and OECD G20 countries. Job Services Australia is the pioneer of results-based contracting for the delivery of employment services. It also features a one-stop shop, but unlike Jobcentre Plus, it refers all the registered unemployed to for-profit and non-profit providers, which participate in a competitive call for proposals and are awarded contracts that pay a standard service fee plus a bonus both for results and for serving the hardest-to-place job seekers.

Do MENA countries have the kind of well-developed network of private employment services providers that would be required under the Australian system? At present, it would appear not. However, given the region’s political economy and the weak administrative capacity of its public employment agencies, it does seem an opportune moment to develop one.  Developing the capacity of private employment services providers as well as putting in place systems and procedures to help governments in MENA manage this kind of system is a more realistic and quicker way of improving the delivery of public employment services in the short-run. Of course, in the long-run, a comprehensive public sector reform will be needed.

The MENA Community of Practice on employment and social safety nets will look into promoting exchanges and cooperation between MENA countries and “’Down Under” in the months to come. These interactions will not only expose MENA countries to a successful employment service delivery system, and one perhaps more relevant to their circumstances, but also to a range of international best practices of monitoring and evaluation and Immigration services, both of which are important for MENA countries as they look for ways to improve the governance and efficiency of their labor markets.

Global Arab Network: by Rene Leon Solano
Rene Leon-Solano is a social protection specialist in the Human Development Department of the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. He works on labor market issues and youth employment in Tunisia and Morocco and has provided operational, technical, and analytical support to those governments following the Arab Spring. Before joining the World Bank, he worked for the Inter-American Development Bank and the Organization of American States, where he designed, implemented, and supervised loans and grants in 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. He holds a master’s degree in public policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

(© 2012 The World Bank Group)

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Right out of the recession, Employment Connection was struggling. 

It was having trouble placing people into jobs, while also dealing with a volley of funding cuts. Then came a 2009 Workforce Investment Act review. It found Employment Connection was failing to meet its goals.

“I don’t know that we were actually assessing our outcomes,” Executive Director Dave Reines says. ”We were sorta more looking at how we would work with individuals and not necessarily creating that employment pipeline.”

Changing their focus 
Reines says that sparked his agency to reflect on just how it operated. 

“We felt that were spending a lot more money on the job seeker and supporting training than we were on the employer,” Reines says. “And we felt strongly that our model needed to reflect the fact that both were important customers of ours.

“So we began to focus a little bit more on the development of a business services team and skill sets in that team that were different than we had previously.” 

Employment Connection and its non-profit contractor, the United Labor Agency, took on what is called a demand-driven model. They brought on agency employees with backgrounds in private-sector recruitment, HR and sales. David Megenhardt, executive director of United Labor Agency, says there was a whole new energy to this revised team.

“We got our staff on the phone, we started calling, we started talking, it really was that conversation between the employer and our staff that really drove this,” Megenhardt says. “Because, you know, we could guess what they wanted, but until we actually started working with them, fill their jobs needs, then we better understood what it is that they needed.” 

Not that job training services like resume writing and interview coaching were dropped, says Reines.  But now, the needs of those providing jobs is part of the mix too.

The results are in
So what’s been the outcome, almost three years later? 

“We’ve gone from about 1,500 placements in the first year,” Reines says. “We expect to place close to 4,000 this year.” 

Employment Connection’s now working more closely with regional manufacturers, call centers and health care providers like the Cleveland Clinic to find workers that fit their specific needs.

Megenhardt says since implementing the demand-driven model, the success rates for Employment Connections’s job seekers have greatly improved. Its placement rate for adults is nearly 83 percent, compared to 53 percent in 2009 and women, ex-felons, students and African-Americans are seeing bumps in placement and earnings.

At the same time, the agency has had to endure a  $3 million budget cut, leading to a shrewd reworking of its training programs.  

“When we contract with training providers, we have what we call ‘performance-based contracts’ now,” Reines says.

Instead of just paying trainers up front for placing a job seeker into a training program, Employment Connections pays them 50 percent on placement, 25 percent when the training is complete and the final 25 percent when that job seeker is placed into a job.

“So, it’s made the trainers get a little bit more involved in ensuring that the training they’re providing is going to result in employment as well,” Reines says.

Hannah Halbert has studied Employment Connection’s use of the demand driven model for the advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio. She proposes taking its success story to the state level, using casino revenues to fund a regional grant program.

“To support these kinds of conversations:  So, what are our needs?  How do we best meet them and how do we grow our sector, how do we grow our regional economy, and how do we get more people into jobs?” Halbert says.

Halbert says in addition to forging partnerships between job placement agencies, worker training programs and companies, such a program should also focus on identifying specific needs of cities and regions.

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Right out of the recession, Employment Connection was struggling. 

It was having trouble placing people into jobs, while also dealing with a volley of funding cuts. Then came a 2009 Workforce Investment Act review. It found Employment Connection was failing to meet its goals.

“I don’t know that we were actually assessing our outcomes,” Executive Director Dave Reines says. ”We were sorta more looking at how we would work with individuals and not necessarily creating that employment pipeline.”

Changing their focus 
Reines says that sparked his agency to reflect on just how it operated. 

“We felt that were spending a lot more money on the job seeker and supporting training than we were on the employer,” Reines says. “And we felt strongly that our model needed to reflect the fact that both were important customers of ours.

“So we began to focus a little bit more on the development of a business services team and skill sets in that team that were different than we had previously.” 

Employment Connection and its non-profit contractor, the United Labor Agency, took on what is called a demand-driven model. They brought on agency employees with backgrounds in private-sector recruitment, HR and sales. David Megenhardt, executive director of United Labor Agency, says there was a whole new energy to this revised team.

“We got our staff on the phone, we started calling, we started talking, it really was that conversation between the employer and our staff that really drove this,” Megenhardt says. “Because, you know, we could guess what they wanted, but until we actually started working with them, fill their jobs needs, then we better understood what it is that they needed.” 

Not that job training services like resume writing and interview coaching were dropped, says Reines.  But now, the needs of those providing jobs is part of the mix too.

The results are in
So what’s been the outcome, almost three years later? 

“We’ve gone from about 1,500 placements in the first year,” Reines says. “We expect to place close to 4,000 this year.” 

Employment Connection’s now working more closely with regional manufacturers, call centers and health care providers like the Cleveland Clinic to find workers that fit their specific needs.

Megenhardt says since implementing the demand-driven model, the success rates for Employment Connections’s job seekers have greatly improved. Its placement rate for adults is nearly 83 percent, compared to 53 percent in 2009 and women, ex-felons, students and African-Americans are seeing bumps in placement and earnings.

At the same time, the agency has had to endure a  $3 million budget cut, leading to a shrewd reworking of its training programs.  

“When we contract with training providers, we have what we call ‘performance-based contracts’ now,” Reines says.

Instead of just paying trainers up front for placing a job seeker into a training program, Employment Connections pays them 50 percent on placement, 25 percent when the training is complete and the final 25 percent when that job seeker is placed into a job.

“So, it’s made the trainers get a little bit more involved in ensuring that the training they’re providing is going to result in employment as well,” Reines says.

Hannah Halbert has studied Employment Connection’s use of the demand driven model for the advocacy group Policy Matters Ohio. She proposes taking its success story to the state level, using casino revenues to fund a regional grant program.

“To support these kinds of conversations:  So, what are our needs?  How do we best meet them and how do we grow our sector, how do we grow our regional economy, and how do we get more people into jobs?” Halbert says.

Halbert says in addition to forging partnerships between job placement agencies, worker training programs and companies, such a program should also focus on identifying specific needs of cities and regions.

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PERMANENT Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Illoh, will tomorrow in Lagos, launch the Code of Conduct for Private Employment Agencies in Nigeria, at the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, (NECA) House, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

He will be assisted by local and international dignitaries including the Director-General of NECA, the International Labour Organization, ILO, Director for West Africa, the European Union, E.U, Representative, National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Representative, Captains of Industry and Chief Executives of Human Capital Providers Association of Nigeria (HuCaPAN).

A statement by HuCaPAN, President and General Secretary, Neye Enemigin and Roselyn Onolaja, said HuCaPAN was very passionate about the Code of Conduct, as among other reasons, that it would help to self-regulate every Licensed Private Employment Agency/Labour Contractor in Nigeria.

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There are more than 1,000 employment agencies in Slovakia employing a total of 30,000 people, but many of them do not observe the rules of fair-play vis-a-vis employees and the state, the TASR newswire learned at a round-table discussion organised by the Association of Personnel Agencies in Slovakia (APAS) on Monday, May 13.

The discussion was attended by representatives of the Labour Ministry, the Labour Inspectorate, the Centre of Labour, Social Affairs and the Family (ÚPSVaR), trade unions, employers and several NGOs. The law in Slovakia stipulates that employees provided to companies by employment agencies should enjoy similar salary conditions as ordinary employees. However, agencies frequently provide only minimum wage to their employees, while the rest of the difference is paid in the form of ‘travel compensation’. These employees may receive the same amount as ordinary staff, but their pension savings are calculated only from the minimum salary, while the taxes and payroll deductions are also based only on this amount. These agency employees also receive less money for sick-time and holidays, and after dismissal they are only entitled to lower unemployment benefits.

According to director of the Adecco agency Beata Bruna Jakub, as many as 15,000 people are employed under these conditions – with the state losing around €22 million on taxes annually. Meanwhile, the profit margins of agencies that engage in such illicit practices are three to four times higher compared to honest agencies, said Jakub. Employment agencies provide staff mainly to engineering factories, logistics centres, construction companies, retail chains and for seasonal work.

(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.

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