The duration of a temporary employee's assignment to a client company is to be limited in the future to 18 months maximum be limited. If he is taken on by the customer, he faces the loss of protection against dismissal, the restart of the probationary period and a change to a fixed-term employment contract. If he is not taken on by the customer company, the hirer must assign him a new assignment. However, the entitlements to industry surcharges acquired up to that point are lost in the process, as they are assignment-related. It remains to be seen to what extent collective agreements and company agreements can provide for longer assignments.
With Equal Pay the temporary workers shall after nine months receive the same pay as permanent employees of the assignment company with identical activities. At Franz & Wach, this brings only a minimal change to the current situation, as our temporary employees usually receive equal pay after nine months at the latest anyway due to industry surcharges. The majority of our employees already receive equal pay after three months. This arrangement is customer-specific.
In the past, some companies repeatedly appeared officially as Contract for work partner but actually offered temporary staffing. In some cases, they were paid below the rates for temporary workers. The employers' associations and Franz & Wach have been campaigning against this practice for some time. Now the legislator is taking regulatory action and making the principle that applies here a general rule.