Personnel service agency
The term Personal-Service-Agentur ( PSA ) refers to agencies for “placement-oriented temporary employment” which can be set up at the employment agencies according to Section 45 (up to 2008: Section 37c) of the Third Book of the Social Code (SGB III) . They were introduced in 2003. Its designation as a personnel service agency can be traced back to the “First Law for Modern Services on the Labor Market”. It is part of Agenda 2010 and the Hartz concept . According to the original version of the “First Law for Modern Services on the Labor Market”, every employment agency had to ensure the establishment of at least one PPE; since December 31, 2005 this obligation no longer applies. The term personal service agency has not been used since 2008.
The task of the PSA should in particular be to employ unemployed people in order to place them in work by means of temporary workers and to train them in times when there is no lending.
To set up a PPE, the employment agency concludes contracts on behalf of the Federal Agency with authorized distributors ( § 1 AÜG ). Public procurement law applies to contracts with PSA . The employment agency can agree on a fee for the work of the PSA. Originally, the employment agency, on behalf of the Federal Agency, was able to participate in or set up rental companies if no contracts were concluded. This possibility was also eliminated by the change in the law, as it was not used.
Tasks of a personnel service agency
The PSA employ unemployed people and lend them to companies for a limited period of time. The aim is for the hiring company to take over the previously unemployed person. In phases without deployment, the PPE employees should be qualified by the person wearing the PPE.
The advantage is that a company can employ the qualified temporary worker for a longer period of time without a longer-term contractual commitment in the company before it concludes a long-term employment contract with the job seeker. A job seeker in turn has the opportunity not only to document his qualifications in his application documents, but also to prove his skills in practice.
The employment of the unemployed is subsidized by the Federal Agency through flat-rate payments. If the PSA employee is now employed by a hirer or without the involvement of a lender, i.e. directly by a company, for at least three months, the PSA in turn receives a placement bonus from the employment agency . After six months of employment, PSA will again receive a sustainability bonus.
criticism
One of the criticisms of the PSA concept is that personnel is only hired through temporary work if the hiring company can afford employees financially. As a result, PPE employees often do not get the chance to show what they can do in companies and stick with it . The agencies for work also offer interested unemployed people and employers the opportunity to determine their suitability through company training measures without creating an employment relationship and incurring costs for the employer.
The Maatwerk bankruptcy
Critics question the effectiveness of the PSA concept in terms of reducing unemployment and saw themselves confirmed in 2003 by the insolvency of the provider Maatwerk. Maatwerk took advantage of the employment agency's monthly subsidy: a monthly flat-rate fee for hiring and employing the unemployed was paid by the employment agency in accordance with the rules in force at the time, regardless of the date of employment. If you were hired at the end of the month, you paid retrospectively for the entire month. If the employee was dismissed again at the beginning of the month in the next funding month, the PSA received a full flat rate per case. If there are more than 9000 employees, with only 1000 in active rental, the system is not applicable.
Track record and prospects
In 2004, the integration of the PSA was ten percent higher than that of the Employment Agency and some other integration projects. However, the Federal Agency is planning to withdraw from the PPE business, as there have been successes in mediation, but not in the expected amount.
Since the placement quota of unsubsidized temporary employment agencies was similar in 2005, it is doubtful that the high costs of the employment agency for the grant to the PSAs are economically justifiable. However, there is also considerable criticism of such studies, which are based, among other things, on the fact that the placement figures for PPE are collected by the Federal Agency, while those of the non-subsidized companies are based solely on their own information. In addition, the PSAs only employ people with placement impediments, while unsubsidized companies can hire “anyone”, including students, housewives, etc. So there is no direct comparability.
BMAS report on Hartz Acts I to III from February 1, 2006
According to the BMAS report , only a few labor market policy measures in the Hartz laws have made it easier for unemployed people to start a new job. In large parts, the reform failed to achieve its goal of stimulating the German labor market. In particular, the establishment of PSA had proven to be an unsuitable labor market instrument. Some PSA employees were integrated into the labor market even later than comparable unemployed people. In addition, an employee in a PSA leads to additional costs of EUR 5700 on average - without improving employment opportunities. That is why in January the federal government released the employment agencies from the obligation to set up a PPE. The placement voucher was also rated poorly by the scientists.
It should be mentioned that many well-known experts criticized the drafting of the IAB. Here it was “forgotten” that the PPE is restricted to unemployed people who are often repeatedly reduced in performance, while “other” temporary employment agencies are allowed to use the free market and simply hire anyone.
The comparability was therefore far from given. In addition, while it may be true that PPE is an expensive tool, it is a fact that other labor market tools are far more expensive and ineffective. (Retraining, professional development)
The fact that employment in the PSA immediately creates an employment relationship subject to social insurance (payment of pension, health, unemployment insurance = inflow of funds into the public coffers), and what effects this causes, was not taken into account in this elaboration.
literature
- Raimund Waltermann : Social Law , 7th edition 2008, p. 197
Individual evidence
- ↑ Amendment to § 37c SGB III
- ↑ The effectiveness of modern services on the labor market (2006)
