Published on 28th October 2016
The business case on fair recruitment developed by the World Employment Confederation in cooperation with Verité, addresses recruitment intermediaries around the world and aims to show them that agencies operating in line with the quality standards of the World Employment Confederation are profitable and successful.
This is crucial in countries where recruitment intermediaries are not regulated or where it is normal to charge fees to the jobseekers and workers.
The World Employment Confederation is against fee-charging of workers because it can lead to their exploitation and abuse. It is essential that recruitment intermediaries are aware of the risks of these practices and understand that embracing the fair recruitment model and adopting higher quality standards lead to a successful and sustainable business.
It is also vital to differentiate the good ethical players, such as the members of the World Employment Confederation, from the rogue ones that make a profit at the expenses of workers’ rights. For this reason, governments need to adopt appropriate regulation on the industry, based on ILO Convention on Private Employment Agencies, 1997 (No. 181).This will help create a level playing field and get rid of rogue operators that undercut the ethical agencies and that slash prices by shifting the recruitment costs onto the workers.
The World Employment Confederation has been working to improve practices of recruitment intermediaries around the world, in cooperation with the ILO. As part of the Fair Recruitment Initiative, the World Employment Confederation has conducted various capacity building sessions for recruitment intermediaries and their federations as a way to professionalise the industry and improve overall quality of services.
