Social Innovation in the temporary agency work industry

The World Employment Confederation-Europe and UNI Europa, in the context of their updated work programme for the sectoral social dialogue on temporary agency work, are conducting a joint research project on “Social Innovation in the temporary agency work industry”.
Social innovation is a key component of the changing world of work and a tool to establish futureproof, better functioning labour markets. Social innovation can be defined as the implementation of new strategies in the field of learning, working, and social protection to meet the needs of workers, employers and society in general.
The policy concept of social innovation is closely linked to recent EU social policy initiatives, such as the European Pillar of Social Rights, the Commission proposal for a Directive on transparent and predictable working conditions and the Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed. The lessons learnt in the project will aim to improve these and other policy initiatives.
Social innovation in the temporary agency work industry is present in many different dimensions, but the project focuses on: i) skills enhancement and training, ii) working conditions, and iii) social protection. Given the role of temporary agency work and its multi-sectoral approach, the research will clearly have a multi-sectoral and cross-national dimension.
The project includes the research carried out by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and the Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA) at KU Leuven, three thematic workshops on social innovation practices in the temporary agency work industry to identify social innovation practices and a pan-European conference.