QUESTION:
Government regulations can make doing business more complicated. US staffing firms have to contend with Affordable Care Act rules, OSHA regulations and more. But how does the US stack up when compared with other countries in terms of regulatory difficulty?
Answer:
Actually, the US still has a much lower regulatory burden on temporary staffing than others. It ranks as the second-most attractive staffing marked based on level of temporary work regulation, according to a report by Staffing Industry Analysts’ Research Analyst David Papapostolou.
The report uses an index by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development that takes into account:
- Maximum number of successive assignments or fixed-term contracts allowed.
- Maximum cumulated duration of successive assignments or fixed-term contracts allowed.
- Types of work for which temporary agency work is legal.
- Whether client companies must apply equal treatment of traditionally employed workers to temporary agency workers.
Canada ranked as the No. 1 country for low regulatory burden. The United Kingdom was No. 3, followed by South Africa and New Zealand.
Some countries at the opposite end of the spectrum regulate how long a temporary worker can be on a job before he or she must be hired permanently, prohibit use of contingents to replace striking workers or prohibit temps from filling certain jobs, among other things.
