CJEU, 22 February 2024, Case  C-649/22, Randstad Empleo ETT SAU

The Court of Justice has issued a ruling concerning equal treatment of temporary workers and permanent employees of a user undertaking, as provided for by Directive 91/383/EEC of 25 June 1991, concerning a temporary agency worker who was involved in an accident at work and was declared to be suffering from a total permanent incapacity to carry out his usual occupation. He was then awarded 10,500 euros compensation under the collective temporary agency work agreement applicable in Spain. However, had he been a permanent employee of the user undertaking, he would have received, for the same reasons, compensation amounting to 60,101.21 euros under the collective agreement applicable in the transport sector. The Court of Justice points out that the existence of a temporary employment relationship cannot justify different treatment with respect to working conditions, especially since temporary agency workers are, in certain sectors, more exposed to the risk of accidents at work than other workers. If, in the event of an accident at work, the financial risk for user undertakings were lower as regards those workers compared with the workers they recruit directly, those undertakings “would be less encouraged to invest in the safety of temporary agency workers, which would undermine” the objective of health and safety. While it is true that a collective bargaining agreement specific to temporary workers may apply, this agreement must guarantee the “overall protection of temporary workers”: they must be granted advantages in terms of basic working and employment conditions which are such as to compensate for the difference in treatment they suffer. It is for the national court to determine whether this is the case. If these advantages are not granted, the Court holds that this difference in treatment would be a breach of EU law.