One of the State's largest trade unions has criticised the Government for discriminating against temporary workers in negotiations on an EU directive.
SIPTU general president Des Geraghty said the government's position on the introduction of the Temporary Agency Workers Directive would "perpetuate discrimination" against agency workers.
"The Government's position as put forward by Minister for Labour Affairs, Frank Fahey, will act as an inducement to create more and more agency work, controlled by recruitment agencies who are exploiting such workers," Mr Geraghty said.
"The proposals contained in the directive proposed by the European Commission would have introduced equity and fairness into the market by giving temporary agency workers the same conditions of employment as full time workers after a waiting period of six weeks."
He said the government wanted a waiting period of six months.
"We would like to see a situation like they have in Holland where agency workers are protected by trade unions so that their pay and conditions are at least regulated by collective agreements, even if they remain employees of the recruitment agency," Mr Geraghty added.
Mr Geraghty said it was not clear how many agency workers there were in Ireland because the market was so "under-regulated".