The International Confederation of Private Employment Agencies (Ciett) has expressed its disappointment at comments in the latest Employment Outlook report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), stating that the report fails to appreciate the stepping-stone function of agency work.

The OECD highlighted in its report that an important dimension of job quality is the stability of the employment contract.

The report stated: “In particular, efforts are needed to address the gap in employment protection between permanent and temporary workers. Temporary jobs are often not an automatic stepping-stone to a permanent job. In Europe, for example, less than half of temporary workers in a given year had full-time permanent contracts three years later.”

Ciett considers this an unfortunate distinction, and stressed the need to differentiate between various types of non-regular employment, citing the OECD’s own employment protection legislation index. The research shows that in many countries agency work offers more protection to workers than other types of temporary work such as fixed term contracts.

Denis Pennel, Managing Director of Ciett, commented: “It is important to realise that the world of work is changing, and that even open-ended contracts are by no means permanent contracts per se. In the end, employment security is far more important than perceived permanence. Private employment services are excellently placed to provide such kind of employment security and to facilitate labour market transitions.”

Research from Ciett indicates that, while only 32% of agency workers, were employed before starting as an agency worker, 12 months later 68% remained in employment. This shows that agency work is an important stepping stone into a situation of long lasting employment.

Article originally published by Staffing Industry Analysts