The situation
An agency workforce supplied by several agencies at two plants
A food-packaging manufacturer runs plants in Osnabrück and Venlo. At peak, a third of the line staff are agency workers, supplied by four agencies on both sides of the border. A union query in Venlo and an audit question in Osnabrück have the HR lead asking the same thing: what does the law require of us, not only of the agencies?
Most equal-treatment rules bind the agency as employer. But the user company holds the pay data, sets the hours, runs the canteen and decides how long a worker stays. The hours go on separating the agency’s duties from the user’s in two countries, and on the time limits that build up quietly.
What the research has to settle
The rules behind the answer
- Equal treatment is the EU starting point
- The Temporary Agency Work Directive gives agency workers the same basic working and employment conditions, including pay and working time, as if the user had hired them directly. Member states may let collective agreements depart from this, provided the overall protection of agency workers is respected.
- Germany: equal pay and an assignment cap
- German law requires equal pay, with a time-limited exception for collective agreements, and caps how long one worker may be assigned to the same user unless a collective agreement in the user’s sector sets a different limit. The agency also needs a licence.
- The Netherlands: equal pay and liability for wages
- Dutch law requires equal pay for agency workers, subject to collective agreements, and can make the user liable for wages and wage tax the agency fails to pay. The Netherlands is also introducing a mandatory admission scheme for agencies, so the rules in force on the date need checking.
- The user’s own duties
- The user must give agency workers access to collective facilities such as the canteen and transport, and inform them of vacancies. Under EU law the user is also responsible for health and safety conditions at its site during the assignment.
How it runs in azta
From the question to the document
The question, as you would type it
Manufacturing plants in Germany and the Netherlands using agency workers from four agencies, some assigned for over a year. What equal-treatment and equal-pay duties apply, how long can one worker stay with us, and what is the user company itself responsible or liable for?
You start with
An agency workforce supplied by several agencies at two plants
- 01
Describe the workforce
Give the plants, the agencies, the number of workers and how long they have been assigned. azta searches the directive and the German and Dutch rules.
Cited research· Free - 02
Find the decisions on equal pay
Ask for the Court of Justice and national decisions on collective agreements that depart from equal pay. azta summarises them and links each one.
Case-law search - 03
Draft the HR note
Ask for a note that separates the agency’s duties from yours, per country, with actions. Edit it in Canvas.
Canvas · Ask azta· Pro - 04
Send it to the plant managers
Export the note to Word for the plant managers and keep the cited research for the audit file.
Word export· Pro You send
A note on the user company’s equal-treatment duties and liabilities
What you get
A note on the user company’s equal-treatment duties and liabilities
HR note · draft
Agency workers at Osnabrück and Venlo: our duties as the user
Pay. In both countries the agency must pay its workers on equal terms with our own staff, unless a collective agreement allows otherwise within the legal limits. The agencies need our pay scales to do this, and HR will share them for each role under a confidentiality clause.
Assignment length, Osnabrück. German law limits how long one agency worker can be assigned to us. Twelve workers have been with us for more than a year. HR will check each against the limit and any collective agreement that applies, and end or convert the assignment in time.
Our own duties. In both plants, agency workers use the canteen and the shuttle bus on the same terms as employees, and internal vacancies are posted where they can see them. In Venlo we will confirm each agency’s status under the current Dutch rules, as we can be liable for wages it fails to pay.
Outcomes on your numbers
What azta is worth on this task
Pro pays for itself after
20 minutes a month
At €85 an hour, that is all the time Pro (€27 a month) has to take off your desk to cover its price.
Example figures. Replace them with your own.
- Hours back a year
- 32
- Capacity at your rate
- €2,754
- More agency-worker notes a quarter
- 1.5
- Return on Pro
- 8.5×
- Research
- Drafting
- Your review
A scenario you set, not a promise. The hours that come back go to another client, or deeper into this one.
Want these numbers on your team’s real workload?
Book a demoSources azta searches here
- EUR-Lex · Curia
- Gesetze im Internet
- Rechtsprechung im Internet
- wetten.overheid.nl
- Rechtspraak.nl
What stays with you
- The assignment data: who has worked where, and for how long.
- Reading the collective agreements that apply, which you upload.
- Contracts and audits with the agencies.
Frequently asked questions
- Does azta hold the sector collective agreements?
- It holds legislation and published decisions, not every collective agreement. Upload the agreement that applies and azta reads it alongside the law.
- Can it count one worker’s assignment period?
- Describe the dates and the agreement that applies and azta sets out how the limit is counted, with the provisions. The count itself is yours.
- Does it cover agency workers posted from abroad?
- Yes. Describe the posting and azta researches the posting rules alongside the agency-work rules.
