Travel Expenses Allowance Employment Agency: Your Right!

Questioner

I have been working since February via an employment agency at a company 11 kilometres away. At the start, I asked the employment agency whether I would receive travel allowance. The employment agency then called the client who said that they did not provide travel allowance. Following this, I was told by the employment agency that I would therefore not receive travel allowance. I checked the ABU collective labour agreement under which I fall, in which I read, in short, that I am entitled to the same expenses and therefore travel allowance as permanent employees at the client. According to the client, there was therefore no travel allowance. After working here for a while and talking to the employees, I heard that someone with a permanent employment contract, and everyone with a permanent employment contract, simply received travel allowance. I was then also told that last year there was a temporary employee who did not receive travel allowance at the start of his work there, but a few months later, after he had pursued it himself with a lot of effort and nagging, and who was eventually given travel allowance. As a result of this I got the idea that something was wrong and I did some research myself. I eventually ended up at the client's personnel handbook. Which is by the way public for everyone there so I had permission to see it. This handbook described an extensive travel allowance for the staff. A mileage allowance and a public transport allowance from 10 km one way. I meet all the conditions that were set here for the travel allowance. I went to my direct manager about this, who himself knew nothing about this arrangement and is not responsible for it either. So we took this one step further, to the person who is responsible for this and had also contacted the employment agency about this, this person told the employment agency that there was no arrangement for travel allowance. I had a conversation with this gentleman about how this was. It came down to the fact that he had to consult with HR and the director and that according to him there was an agreement with all employment agencies they work with that the client does not pay travel expenses to temporary workers. I then had a conversation with my intermediary at the employment agency. He checked everything on the computer and agreed with me that according to the information about the travel allowance from the handbook and the ABU collective labor agreement, I am indeed entitled to travel allowance. This has been going wrong since February and I have not received it. The employment agency has now consulted with the client, which also took 2 months, and I have just been told that the client's position is that they will not make any changes to the employment conditions in the meantime as previously agreed. The employment agency's response to this was that I was unlucky because they cannot pass on the travel costs to a client without their approval. In any case, the employment agency is now actually violating the ABU collective labor agreement because I am entitled to travel allowance, but no one wants to pay it to me. To my knowledge the employment agency is my employer and they are responsible for paying my wages and expenses, and is it their business to recover that from the client, or am I wrong? I would like to hear your opinion on this.

Lawyer

You are absolutely right. The employment agency is your employer and therefore has to adhere to the ABU CAO. Now that the ABU CAO stipulates that you are entitled to the same reimbursement of expenses as the personnel employed by the hirer, the employment agency must pay your travel expenses. If the hirer does not pay the employment agency, then that is the employment agency's problem. So I advise you to inform the employment agency in writing that you are entitled to travel expenses. If that does not help, I am happy to assist you further. Sometimes it helps if a letter from a lawyer arrives.