HR: UN report says temp staff laid off first

The International Labour Organisation has today issued a report saying "Workers who found jobs through temporary employment agencies were among the first to find themselves out of work as a result of the global financial and economic crises."The report says that that the most temporary job losses was in the manufacturing sector of developed countries, especially in the car industry.In Germany, between 100,000 and 150,000 temporary workers are estimated to have lost their jobs in the four to six months after October 2008, with similar trends in Japan, the United States, Spain and France.The ILO's John Myers, author of the report, says that it could be well into next year before temporary staff are again in demand. “This would generally happen after overtime hours and the length of the working week begin to rise among the core workforce of user enterprises, and companies’ slack capacity begins to fall,” he said. “When firms consider turning to [temp] agencies to meet their needs, this will be one of the first signs that the economic crisis is beginning to end.”In fact, the Report plays heavily on the role of agencies which supply temporary staff saying that they "act as the middle-man in modern labour markets, allowing businesses greater flexibility to increase or cut their workforce, while ensuring workers receive sufficient security in terms of job opportunities and employment standards, including pay, working time and training."And the Report is to promote ILO Convention 181, designed to bring temporary workers within a more closely controlled framework, ideally employed full time by a company that subcontracts them to other businesses.But, one still has to ask the obvious question: why did the ILO bother? The whole reason temporary or contract staff are engaged is so that organisations can "breathe" to take account of changes in demand for their products and services. The report, therefore, merely confirms a basic truth: when times get tough, temps are the first to go.