Christian trade union receives 7 complaints a day about employment agencies
Last year the Christian trade union ACV received 1,926 complaints from people working for employment agencies. This is more than two and a half times more than a decade ago. The union says that employment agencies exploit the vulnerability of those that work for them.
The lion’s share of the complaints are about wages not having been paid out correctly. This can be wage arrears, hours worked have not been registered correctly or bonuses (for example for evening or weekend work) that have not been paid. Other issues include failure to pay out sick pay, holiday pay, travel expenses or provided luncheon vouchers. Complaints related to wage issues account for 76% of the total number of complaints about employment agencies received by the union.
ACV believes that the number of complaints it deals with is just the tip of the iceberg.
"We only look into the complaints made by ACV members. We have no idea of how many complaints other unions receive, how many non-union temps have issues or how many issues are resolved in the workplace”, ACV’s Eva Van Laere told VRT News.
According to the union it is clear that employment agencies take advantage of the vulnerable position temps find themselves in. “In a growing market there are more and more temps and agencies. The less the agencies pay, the greater the efficiency, making the agency more interesting for the customer”, Ms Van Laere added.
The union compiled at top 10 list of the employment agencies about which it received the most complaints. Accent topped the list with 206 complaints, followed by Randstad with 176 complaints. However, it we set the figures against market share Randstad receives relatively few complaints while the much smaller Accent is by far the agency with which temps have the most issues.