Informal meeting with social partners
Ref. Ares(2021)3024303 - 06/05/2021
Online, 6 October 2020
Commission Work Programme
Main messages
President von der Leyen has put the social dimension at the
core of our recovery
strategy (Recovery package, State of the Union/Letter of Intent).
Commissioners Johansson and Schmit the renewed Commission commitment to the
European Partnership for Integration through a joint statement with five Social and
Economic Partners organisations (ETUC, Business Europe, SMEUnited, CEEP,
Eurochambres).
DG EMPL issued the Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) review,
titled “
Leaving no one behind and striving for more: fairness and solidarity in the
European social market economy”. The report highlights the role of the social
partners as key contributors to responses to cyclical downturns, whether discussing
health risk mitigation for workers or short-term work schemes.
The
socio-economic outlook is gloomy and affects all working population and every
company big or small. Wide-range measures have been taken by the Commission,
namely the SURE to support employment through a short-term work schemes.
On the European Pillar of Social Rights Action Plan – will be part of Annex I 2021
CWP
Early in 2021, we will present an
Action Plan to implement the Pillar and its 20
principles. We envisage
a strategic document:
a
list of new actions to be undertaken in the coming years at EU level:
o CWP 2020/2021: e.g. minimum wages, social economy, child guarantee…
o beyond 2021 and up to the end of the mandate.
an
updated governance (updated monitoring toolbox - in particular
Social
Scoreboard -; supporting frame for Member States, regions and local authorities to
implement the Pillar at their level).
The aim is to have the Action Plan
endorsed by the other EU institutions at a Social
Summit (level of Heads of State and Government) in Porto in May 2021.
It must reflect the Commission’s efforts to implement the Pillar’s 20 principles in
all
policy domains.
The European agenda is however only
one side of the coin. The other one is the
action at national, regional and local level, as well as by
social partners and civil
society.
We had a dedicated workshop with you in June and we have been in constant contact.
However, I would like to
reiterate our call to participate with a written contribution
in the ongoing consultation on the Action Plan. Concretely:
What gaps do you see in the implementation of the Pillar? What action is needed to
address these gaps and at what level?
What
are
you doing and what can you do in the future to implement the Pillar?
On social dialogue
In July, the Commission appointed Andrea Nahles, former German minister of
employment, as special advisor to Commissioner Nicolas Schmit to advise him “on
strengthening the social dialog in Europe and on the role of social partners”.
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Her mission is closely linked to the preparation of the Action Plan on the
implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. Commissioner Schmit asked
Ms Nahles to come up with some concrete proposals for the Action Plan on how to
strengthen social dialogue.
I understand that she already talked to the leaders of the four EU cross-industry social
partners to introduce herself and explain her mandate.
Ms Nahles intends to organise a small-scale workshop with EU cross-industry and
sectoral social partners to get some feedback on her first ideas and collect some
proposals from social partners.
On the Minimum wage initiative
The general objective of the initiative is to ensure that all workers in the EU are
protected by an adequate minimum wage. The specific objectives of the initiative would
be to improve the adequacy and increase the coverage of minimum wages.
Any measure would respect national competences and social partners’ contractual
freedom. The Commission does not aim to set a uniform European minimum wage. It
would also not require Member States to introduce a statutory minimum wage.
We thank you for your inputs during the two stage-consultations! Your views are being
considered to shape our final proposal.
On platform workers –will be part of Annex I 2021 CWP
The letter of intent accompanying the State of the Union address mentions an initiative
to improve the working conditions of platform workers amongst the new initiatives in
2021 to make Europe “fit for the digital age”.
A high-level conference to gather insights on this complex issue was supposed to take
place in September 2020, but was cancel ed due to the uncertainties of the current
public health crisis. Instead, we are organising an alternative series of events in the
autumn.
These will allow us to initiate a dialogue with different stakeholders, which remains a
fundamentally important step in the process of defining options for an EU initiative in
this area.
In November, we will be meeting with the cross-industry social partners for a first
exchange of views on challenges in platform work.
A formal social partners consultation would follow in case an action based on Article
153 of the Treaty is considered.
On Occupational Safety and Health – will be part of Annex I 2021 CWP
The Commission recently revised the
Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive, the
fourth revision since 2016. This revision reflects the opinions issued by the tri-partite
Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work, in which Member States,
employers and workers are represented.
But the Commission does not intend to stop here. In her letter of intent, President von
der Leyen also announced that the
new Occupational Safety and Health Strategy will be a key initiative for 2021. And you, as social partners, will play a key role in its
elaboration and implementation.
In addition to that, the preparatory work is underway to set or revise the occupational
limit values for
asbestos, lead and di-isocyanates, and a two-stage social partner
consultation will be launched shortly.
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On the reinforced Youth Guarantee
In July, the Commission presented a new package to boost youth employment, which
included a proposal for a
reinforced Youth Guarantee. We expect the Council
adoption at the end of October/beginning of November.
In addition, the EP’s EMPL committee is preparing a resolution on the reinforced Youth
Guarantee. The EESC is preparing an opinion on the proposal, and the Committee of
the Regions an own-initiative report.
The Commission is aware of ETUC’s work with the European Youth Forum on a quality
framework for the Youth Guarantee, and looks forward to seeing their proposal.
On the Child Guarantee – will be part of Annex I 2021 CWP
Preparations for the Child Guarantee policy initiative are ongoing – both on the drafting
of the instrument, as well as on the targeted consultations with stakeholders. It will be
adopted by the Commission as a proposal for a Council Recommendation in 2021.
The Commission will consult the European Social Partners via a dedicated hearing on
16 October 2020.
It will also be a part of the “social arm” of the upcoming Strategy on the Rights of the
Child, also to be adopted at the beginning of 2021.
The Roadmap of the Child Guarantee initiative has been published for consultation
until 7 October 2020.
On seasonal workers
On 30 March, the Commission published
Guidelines concerning the exercise of the
free movement of workers. The goal was that frontier, posted and seasonal workers
exercising critical occupations have unhampered access to their workplace.
To consolidate our message, we have published on 16 July
Guidelines on seasonal
workers in the EU in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak.
Our initiatives focus on free and fair movement of workers but also aim to ensure equal
treatment, social rights, health and safety, access to public services and decent
housing for the most vulnerable categories of mobile workers.
We committed to further pursue our work with both EU-OSHA and the European
Labour Authority in order to strengthen the access to information and facilitate
awareness raising campaigns.
In the near future, we will also organise a hearing with European social partners on
seasonal workers.
On skills
Up- and reskilling should be an
integral part of the recovery. It will also make us
more resilient. With better skills, in particular the vulnerable will keep their jobs or will
find new ones more easily.
On funding instruments
The ESF+ will continue to be an important financial tool to support the improvement of
human capital and address social challenges. We are working hard to have a deal
approved with the European Parliament, so that we can have the legislation pieces in
place by the end of the year.
It is important that Member States go on with the preparatory work of all the new
funding instruments. It will also be important to have a solid strategic overview of the
economic and social objectives, so to make the whole architecture of the funds clear,
effective and efficient, avoiding overlaps or areas not covered.
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Defensives
The social partners have requested in a letter of 10 April the creation of a new
financial instrument to support the social partners during the crisis.
The Commission took due note of your request and fully understands the difficulties
faced by national social partners in a number of Member States.
As you know, it proved not to be possible to find additional budget in the 2020 budget
and under the current MFF.
The Commission instead proposed to social partners to set aside EUR 5 million under
the 2020 EaSI budget for a call for proposal providing support to cross-industry social
partners with the aim of strengthening their role in mitigating the economic and social
impact of the COVID-19 crisis.
Background
Timetable CWP
The adoption of the Work Programme by the Commission is planned for 20 October
2020.
The Work Programme will be presented to the EP plenary on the date of adoption and
to the first General Affairs Council following the adoption (12 November 2020).
Agreement on the text and signature of the Joint Declaration by the Presidents of the
three institutions (by end December 2020, tbc).
Tripartite Social Summit
The Tripartite Social Summit will take place virtually on 14 October1.
On social partner consultations
On 7 September 2020, Commissioners Johansson and Schmit and representatives of the
five Social and Economic Partners organisations (ETUC, Business Europe, SMEUnited,
CEEP, Eurochambres) renewed their commitment to the
European Partnership for
Integration through a joint statement.
During this Commission mandate, the following hearings took place or are being planned:
17 January: Dedicated social partner hearing on the renewed Skills Agenda
24 February: Dedicated hearing on the reinforced Youth Guarantee
8 June: High-level hearing on the Pillar Action Plan
11 June: High-level meeting with Commissioner Schmit and VP Schinas on the
renewed Skills Agenda
16 September: Consultation hearing on Strategy for sustainable and smart mobility,
jointly organised by EMPL/MOVE for sectoral social partners from transport sector
(BusinessEurope and SMEunited also took part).
16 October: Dedicated hearing on planned Child Guarantee
17 November: a first meeting with social partners on planned initiative on platform
workers
1 Note on on-going discussion on the title of the TSS: the original title proposed by COM, PEC and
DE Presidency is “
Implementing together the social and economic recovery”. ETUC and
BusinessEurope made alternative proposal: “
Implementing together an inclusive and sustained
economic and social recovery of the EU”. We are awaiting feedback from cabinets.
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The last Social Dialogue Committee meeting on 29 September focussed on the
employment and social policy initiatives announced in SOTEU/letter of intent as well as on
the Recovery Plan. The Social Dialogue Committee is the main body for cross-industry bi-
and tripartite social dialogue at European level. It meets 3 times a year to discuss
employer/worker views on employment and social topics.
On the EPSR Action Plan
The cross-industry EU social partners have not yet submitted their formal contribution to
the consultation on the Action Plan to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights.
A dedicated hearing, with the participation of Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis and
Commissioner Schmit has taken place on 8 June 2020. Moreover, some national and
sectoral social partner organisations have already contributed to the online consultation.
Trade Unions are supportive of the Action Plan. The following policy initiatives at EU level
are of particular interest to the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC): fair
minimum wages and a renewed focus on upward convergence in working conditions,
Youth Employment Support, the Skills Agenda, Pay transparency, Platform work, Child
Guarantee, Minimum income, workers’ participation and Occupational Health and Safety
(also taking into account psycho-social risks), access to social protection, work-life
balance/telework/right to disconnect, public investment as macro-economic stabiliser.
Trade unions call for the EU to make use of legislation, the Semester and the Funds to
implement the Pillar. ETUC recal s that as for the Semester, there remains a problematic
difference between the quality of involvement of EU social partners and of national social
partners. The Action Plan should improve the involvement of national social partners
across the Semester cycle. Social partners in Croatia, Greece and Hungary also see this
as a priority. As regards the Funds, the Action Plan should connect and support a social
investment strategy in the Recovery Plan.
ETUC calls for a yearly update of the Action Plan as well as for a revision of the Social
Scoreboard and the Employment Guidelines.
Employers are generally opposed to further legislative action at EU level in the field of
social policy. BusinessEurope emphasises the Semester as the right tool to implement the
Pillar. The Action Plan should be focussed on improving the functioning of the labour
market: more resilience, flexibility and security.
The German cross-industry confederation BDA sees policy coordination and closer
exchanges between Member States and social partners at EU level as the main way
forward to implement the Pillar. They support the BusinessEurope proposal to create a
tripartite consultative committee (1 government, 1 trade union and 1 employer
representative per Member State), chaired by the Commission, to improve the
performance of labour markets and social systems, respecting competences.
The BDA also points out that European employers have never agreed to the Pillar and
that employer organisations do therefore not carry responsibility for its implementation.
SMEunited echoes the call of BusinessEurope for a tripartite approach to implement the
Pillar. Access to social protection for self-employed should remain a priority. However,
there should be due regard for the absorption capacity of national social partners when it
comes to implementing new EU level social legislation.
For the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services (CEEP),
the implementation of principle 8 on social dialogue is a top priority, in particular when it
comes to the national level. Moreover, Principle 20 deserves ful attention: combatting
energy poverty and fostering affordable housing and healthcare services should be
among the main policy priorities, underpinned by the MFF.
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On the reinforced Youth Guarantee
ETUC Resolution on the Reinforced Youth Guarantee (adopted on 2-3 July)
For ETUC, the most relevant issues in the YG implementation are:
low quality of the offers provided under the scheme;
timely intervention within the promised period of 4 months;
the poor outreach strategies to offer the scheme to those young people who are
furthest from the labour market (NEETs).
ETUC calls for:
a better involvement of social partners in design, implementation and evaluation of the
scheme.
synergies with initiatives such as the European Pillar of Social Rights, Skills Agenda,
European minimum wage initiative and European Green Deal.
a binding quality criteria framework to prevent YG from contributing to social
dumping, wage dumping and precariousness.
the European Commission to conduct a study on the link between young people in jobs
without social protection and youth precarious work.
Youth Guarantee negotiations at the Council and other institutions
The Commission proposal for the Council Recommendation on a Bridge to Jobs –
reinforcing the Youth Guarantee is being negotiated at the Social Questions Working
Party. The discussions took place on 10 July and 2 September. Member States feedback
has been positive and constructive overall, and so far the DE PRES has been making only
relatively small adjustments to the text.
The reinforced Youth Guarantee is one of the very few legislative EPSCO files that could
be conclude under the DE Presidency. We expect adoption by the Council in the end of
October/beginning of November (final adoption as “A point” by a physical Council
meeting).
The initiative is a Council Recommendation, whereby the Parliament does not act as co-
legislator. Nonetheless, on 21 September, the EMPL Committee adopted an oral question
to the Commission, an oral question to the Council, and a draft motion for a resolution on
the Council Recommendation on reinforcing the Youth Guarantee (rapporteur EMPL
Committee Chair Lucia Ďuriš Nicholsonová, ECR, SK).
While overall supportive of the Commission’s proposal, the EP is concerned about the
level of funding Member States will allocate for youth employment policies.
State of the Union and the Child Guarantee
The Letter of Intent of the 2020 State of the Union Address includes a list of the major
initiatives the Commission will adopt in 2021, stressing that more details will be included in
the Commission Work Programme for 2021 in October. Under the Heading “An economy
that works for People”, the Letter of Intent includes the Child Guarantee, together with the
Action Plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights.
On Occupational Safety and Health
Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive
The fourth revision of the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD), presented on 22
September 2020, is the first step in this ambitious plan to beat cancer. In the frame of the
two-phase consultation of the social partners, BusinessEurope and the SMEUnited
supported the objective to effectively protect workers from occupational cancer, including
by setting limit values (OELs) at EU level. In the context of the same consultation, ETUC
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insisted that the target of binding OELs for 50 substances has to be achieved by 2020
(now they talk about 2024).
This fourth revision set new or revised occupational exposure OELs for three very
important carcinogens (acrylonitrile, benzene and nickel compounds). The limit values
proposed by the Commission in this initiative are fully in line with the opinions issued by
the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work, in which Member States,
Employers and Workers are represented.
2021-2027 OSH Strategic Framework
The current EU Strategic Framework on Health and Safety at Work runs until end 2020.
There is a large expectation from all stakeholders for its renewal. The new Strategy will
define the EU policy strategic orientations for the next period 2021-2027.
The new OSH strategy will be developed by taking into account among others the lessons
learnt from the current OSH Strategic Framework (being evaluated), as well as from the
pandemic crises.
A public consultation is planned to be launched in the forthcoming months to gather views
both on the previous and the future strategic framework.
Other chemicals
Preparatory work continues on lead and di-isocyanates under the CAD. Establishing an
OEL for di-isocyanates complementary with REACH restriction will prevent occupational
asthma cases among the workers exposed to this substance. RAC opinion for both
substances will be delivered by end September 2020.
Work continuous also on the possible revision of the existing OEL for asbestos under the
Asbestos at Work Directive – a major occupational carcinogen affecting millions of
workers. RAC opinion is due June 2021.
A two-stage social partner consultation concerning asbestos, lead and di-isocyanates will
be launched shortly.
On seasonal workers
Commission Guidelines on free movement
On 30 March ,the Commission published the
Guidelines concerning the exercise of the
free movement of workers. Their focus is on ensuring that mobile workers within the EU,
in particular those in critical occupations fighting the coronavirus pandemic, can reach
their workplace.
The Commission urged Member States to establish specific burden free and fast
procedures to ensure a smooth passage for such cross-border workers, including
proportionate health screening.
As regards seasonal workers, particularly in the agricultural sector, Member States are
asked to exchange information on their different needs at technical level and to establish
specific procedures to ensure a smooth passage for such workers, in order to respond to
labour shortages resulting from the crisis.
Commission Guidelines on seasonal workers
The Commission published on 16 July Guidelines to ensure the protection of seasonal
workers in the EU in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The Communication covers
both EU and non-EU seasonal workers. It provides guidance to national authorities, labour
inspectorates, and social partners to guarantee the rights, health and safety of seasonal
workers, and to ensure that seasonal workers are aware of their rights. The guidelines
include both calls for action to Member States and key stakeholders, as well as further
actions at EU level.
Contact – briefing contribution:
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