The substitution or limiting of permanent direct employment by the use of contract & agency labour has clearly become a priority issue for countless workers and their trade unions, in every region of the world and every sector.
Each year, more and more directly employed jobs are lost to sub-contracting companies or agencies, which usually employ workers with little or no job security, inferior benefits, and with substandard working conditions. This is leading to a two-tier workforce with less and less directly employed workers, and increasing numbers employed through contracts or agencies.
The use of contract and agency labour is now so widespread that it has become a top priority for a large number of ICEM affiliates, so much so that we have launched a determined and sustained international response: the ICEM Contract and Agency Labour Campaign. The ICEM CAL Campaign allows trade unions world-wide to share CAL tools and experiences.

Early this week, workers of a transportation subcontractor at the world’s largest open-pit coal mines, Carbones del Cerrejón in Colombia,...
A unique happenstance followed an ICEM workshop on Contract and Agency Labour (CAL) in Guinea recently: the Industrial Relations manager of...
A massive methane gas explosion in a coal mine in the West Sumatra province of Indonesia, 560 miles northwest of capital Jakarta, killed 31...
Marcel Nuyten, FNV Bondgenoten (Netherlands): "Trade unions should do a great deal more with young workers."