Bemanningsarbete, flexibilitet och likabehandling. En studie av svensk rätt och kollektivavtalsreglering med komparativa inslag

Temporary agency work has come to the fore during recent years as the phenomenon in itself has become more frequent on many national labour markets. This thesis examines how, by means of labour law and collective bargaining, the balance between, on the one hand, the employers’ need for flexibility, and on the other hand, the work-force’s need for stability and continuity in the form of income and employment protection, has been struck. The flexibility analysis focuses the legal scope for numerical flexibility and financial flexibility for traditional employers and temporary work agencies, respectively. Numerical flexibility relates to the employers’ possibilities to adapt the size of the work-force and the number of working hours to the varying demands for manpower. Financial flexibility, in turn, relates to the employer’s possibilities to adjust labour costs in relation to the results and profits of the business and the individual employee’s productivity and knowledge. Strategies to increase flexibility in any of these dimensions also relate to the employees’ terms and conditions of employment and employment protection. Where permanently employed agency workers are covered by agreements that provide income protection guarantees as regard periods between assignments, the employment situation can be characterized as permanent employment both de jure and de facto, although, as a rule, not as full-time employment, as the principles for wage protection are usually indicated as percentages of full-time.