Private Employment Agencies:The Impact of ILO Convention 181 (1997) and the Judgement of the European Court of Justice of 11 December 1997

Once upon a time, the public employment agency reigned like a King over labour markets. Under the precept of ILO Convention NR 96 of 1949 on Fee Charging Employment Agencies, the public employment office enjoyed a fully-fledged monopoly of the labour markets of many countries. `Labour is not a commodity' was (and is) the principle. There was no room in the labour market for private fee charging employment agencies.

<p class=copymedium>In those early years, following World War II, the monopoly of the Official Employment Office was widely accepted and not really discussed as a matter of principle. The reason was simple. The labour market was fairly uniform and not really diversified. Ford-ism was at its highest and Europe was enjoying 30 glorious years of ongoing economic growth. There was social welfare and economic progress. The social partners (employers' associations and trade unions) effectively managed labour relations in a more or less centralised way.

<p class=copymedium>Those days are gone. Indeed, since then tremendous political and ideological changes have taken place in the labour markets. The most significant political change has been the establishment of the European Union and the EEA with the accompanying free movement of labour as a fundamental right, thus creating a European labour market. There is now an explosion of private services in the labour markets, to fulfil the increasingly specific needs of enterprises.

<p class=copymedium>International bodies like the ILO and the EU have adapted their standards to these new developments. The ILO adopted a new Convention in 1997 (No.181) concerning private employment agencies, while landmark case law of the European Court of Justice abolished the monopoly of the Official Employment Office regarding the labour market.

<p class=copymedium>Private enterprises are now able to propose a total package of services for the labour markets, vocational training included. The scope of possibilities for putting workers at the disposal of users has been dramatically widened.

<p class=copymedium>These and other issues were discussed at an international conference, convened by the Euro-Japan Institute for Law and Business (Leuven, 1998) in co-operation with the ILO and the EU. This Bulletin contains the discussion and reports on developments in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, The Netherlands, UK and the USA. It looks ahead and prepares its readers for the jump into the 21st century.