Legal position of temp employees

Employees who work though an agency are less protected than employees who work direct for a company.

When an employer wants to fire an employee who works directly for his company, the employer has the obligation to research whether it’s possible to relocate the employee in a different position within the company. In some cases the employer needs to offer training to make a relocation within a different position possible. This is called the relocation principle.

However, the employer does not have this obligation towards employees who work through an agency. Employers can end the contract at any moment with the temp. Agencies then can easily terminate the contract with this employee due to bad economic circumstances of the agency.

The agency suffices by stating that there are no jobs available at the moment and that there is no expectation there will be a job available within a reasonable time. This makes it harder for indirect employees to fight an illegal termination of the contract. However, this is not impossible.

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