Ref. Ares(2022)76652 - 05/01/2022
Brussels, 4th September 2020
European Commission’s second phase consultation of Social Partners under
Article 154 TFEU on a possible action addressing the challenges related to fair
minimum wages of 3 June 2020.
EFCI’s REPLY
The EFCI
The European Cleaning and Facility Services Industry (EFCI) brings together
13 European associations
representing the industry at national level, in a sector employing over 4 million people in over 283,000
companies.
The EFCI is an international non-profit association and the recognised Social Partner by the European
Commission for the sector. It is the employer’s representative in the European Social Dialogue for
Industrial Cleaning. The EFCI is an observer member of the European Platform for tackling undeclared work
and an active member of the European Business Services Alliance
(EBSA).
Employment overview of the Industrial Cleaning sector1
A growing industry:
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The cleaning industry (NACE code 81.2) employs
more than 4 million people in Europe. The number of
employees increased with annual rates higher than 2.7% and it kept growing even during the years of
the financial crisis.
More stable and quality employment:
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Against the general trends in the European industry, the number of part-timers in the cleaning industry
decreased significantly during the last years, stabilizing at a current 68%.
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Additionally, in the last 20 years the wages and salaries in the sector have consistently increased with
an annual rate of up to a 3.4%, a trend that has increase by reaching maximums of 5.4% in the last
years.
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Furthermore, the percentage of employees currently earning a minimum wage in the industrial
cleaning sector has decreased in many countries since collective bargaining agreements allowed a vast
majority of employees to earn salaries above the national minimum wage. Good examples of this can
be found in Sweden, where collective bargaining already set the wage for cleaning agents a 25% above
the 60% of the Swedish median wage. Similarly, thanks to collective bargaining and the active
involvement of Social Partners, the minimum sectoral salary in Germany has been systematically set
significantly above the minimum national wage.
Steps towards gender balance in a sector employing a large percentage of women: In parallel to the
significant and steady increase in the number of employers, the percentage of women working in the
sector has seen a decrease from the 78% (in 1996) down to 72% in 2016, what shows trend towards a
more gender balanced sector.
A gateway into the labour market:
1 For further information and data on the sector, please read the Trend Report “The European Cleaning Industry
EFCI’s report 2020”
: https://www.efci.eu/wp-content/uploads/flipbooks/2/
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In the last years, the cleaning industry has played a major role in the inclusion of migrant and lower-
skilled citizens into the labour market and it is one of the sectors that employs the highest percentage
of non-European citizens, providing training on the sector but also on languages and digital tools to its
workforce. It is also important to highlight that the latest trends also show the capacity of the sector
to promote worker’s mobility between EU Member States.
Question 1: What are your views on the specific objectives of a possible EU action set out in section 5?
The EFCI understands that the 5 policy objectives are, in general, being systematically achieved in all
Member States. This is particularly the case for the European industrial cleaning sector and for those
Member States in which the Social Dialogue has been traditionally well-functioning. Therefore, and
considering that the involvement and commitment of Social Partners set in the list of policy objectives is
already a reality, the EFCI considers that there is no need for an EU legislative action in this area.
1. On the well-functioning of collective bargaining in wage setting
First and foremost, it is paramount to consider that collective bargaining mechanisms count with a long
history of successful agreements in all Member States and have proven to be the best system to reach fair
wage settings. Further, as proven by the EFCI Members, collective bargaining mechanisms between Social
Partners in the industrial cleaning sector systematically and directly contributed to setting sectoral wages
significantly above the national statutory minimum wage in each State. Forcing minimum wage floors to
well-established and successful collective bargaining systems would be a blunt economic measure that
would drastically disrupt wage-setting calculations and procedures with a probable direct and negative
effect on the acquisition power of employees over the following years.
While Objective 1 underlines the need to adapt wage setting systems to be more responsive to changing
economic circumstances, the EFCI understands that an EU legislative action on this matter would only
have the exact opposite effect. As the recent Covid-19 pandemic has shown, rigid wage systems have only
proven an obstacle in most sectors that have seen how the adaptation to strong changes in productivity
have been very difficult or impossible, resulting in massive lay-off procedures and even bankruptcy.
Therefore, especially considering the current strong instability of the European and global economies, the
EFCI does not understand how the introduction of more rigid measures, such as an EU Directive on
minimum wages, could positively contribute to the competitiveness of any European sector and to well-
established and successful collective bargaining systems.
2. On the provision of updated regulatory frameworks.
Regarding Objective 2, it is important to consider that these frameworks are already in place in all Member
States. While the EFCI agrees on the need to ensure clear and stable criteria in the update of national and
sectoral wages, the introduction of an EU Directive in this matter would only provoke an undesired
opposite effect. National and sectoral Social Partners are best placed to assess the specific socio-economic
circumstances, such as productivity and labour market, that shape the collective bargaining and wage-
setting systems in each country and sector. As a result,
an EU-wide legislative action in this area would
completely lack the necessary understanding and flexibility to be applicable to the particularities and
circumstances of each State and sector. To remain competitive, each country and sector must ensure that
the wages can be negotiated and adapted swiftly to the rapidly changing markets.
3. On the involvement of Social Partners
In line with the aforementioned factors and circumstances, the EFCI shares the general principles set in
Objective 3 of the communication. As already stated above, the knowledge that Social Partners possess of
each sector is critical to understand and support the necessary evolution of not only minimum wage
calculation systems but also of all other factors contributing to the evolution of each market and the
configuration and adaptation of each regulatory framework. In line with this, capacity building is key to
address the matter in Member States in which collective bargaining is less developed. Considering all
these, and the successful history of wage setting agreements through collective bargaining in Europe,
especially in the European industrial cleaning sector,
the EFCI does not consider an EU legislative action
in this field as necessary.
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4. On minimum wage exemptions
Further, the EFCI would like to express its concerns on the lack of clarity of Objective 4 proposal. Whilst
being in favour of limiting the exemptions to the minimum necessary, we understand that again only
national and sectoral Social Partners have the full capacity and knowledge to negotiate, together with
national authorities, the clear and fair regulatory frameworks on which these exemptions are based.
Exemptions to minimum wages are necessary in many sectors to ensure the inclusion of many population
sectors into the labour market.
The specificities of each sector in each Member State on this matter make
it impossible for an EU directive to adapt to each one of them. Furthermore, many of these exemptions
are directly linked to other national legislation such as Vocational Education and Training systems, social
inclusion policy, and short-time work schemes regulations. Therefore, it would be impossible to
successfully tackle this matter without a profound modification of major national policy, a fact that would
directly conflict with the legislative autonomy of each Member State.
5. On implementation of frameworks and undeclared work.
Finally, the EFCI shares with the European Commission its deepest concerns on the high levels of
undeclared work in many countries that continue to damage the efforts of sectors like ours and the overall
economy. The fight against undeclared work is even more important in the current crisis context. Further,
and in the context of the consultation, disregarding or bypassing the crucial role of national Social Partners
by forcing new wage setting procedures through an EU Directive could only empower and increase the
cases of systematic undeclared work. The EFCI understands that fighting to eradicate this phenomenon
entirely is a pre-requisite to any EU initiative willing to work on minimum salaries. In many service sectors,
such as the industrial cleaning, undeclared work represents not only a form of unfair competition but also
the main source of gender and origin- based discrimination, inexistent work safety measures or lack of
social protection. This phenomenon not only puts affected sectors in danger but also directly undermines
any efforts to improve the pay conditions for declared workers. With this, we understand that
increasing
the public and private efforts and resources to tackle this issue in each Member State would have a
much more direct and positive effect on working conditions than any forced changes to wage setting
systems. Regarding the “well-established mechanisms and procedures to ensure proper implementation of
minimum wage rules and frameworks” we would like to highlight again that Social Dialogue in each country
is the most efficient mechanism to ensure fair wages in all sectors. In our understanding, these
mechanisms are already set and have proven successful in the continuous and sustainable increase of pay
conditions. Therefore, we do not see how a forced modification of such mechanisms could improve its
functioning.
General overview and new forms of work.
Overall, as stated,
an EU Directive on minimum wages would only disrupt well-established collective
bargaining systems and undermine the role of national and sectoral Social Partners who, at the same
time, are the only actors with the knowledge to lead any structural changes on pay conditions in all
sectors. In our view, an EU Directive would be a blunt measure that would lack the accuracy of national
and sectoral expertise, would disrupt well-functioning collective bargaining systems and would add
more rigid rules to an economy that requires permanent and full flexibility.
Additionally, the Commission proposal does not take into consideration the new emerging and non-
standard forms of work. As a result of the digitalisation of the economy, organisation of work, and new
customer habits, the change in the nature of work is one of the main transforming factors in European
economies. Therefore, labour legislation must ensure that tailored working arrangements contracts are fit
for, for example, seasonal variations, customer demand variations and the fact that some employees
choose more flexible and/or reduced working schedules to improve their work-life balance. In this sense,
strict EU initiatives can become a serious obstacle by lowering the EU’s market flexibility and seriously
endanger the Union’s post-pandemic recovery.
The members of the EFCI prioritise and promote fair pay conditions to its workers and engage permanently
in initiatives to promote quality work and quality-based selection of services providers. In this sense,
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together with our Social Partner UNI Europa we have developed tools such as
the Selecting Best Value
guide to assist public and private organisations in purchasing quality cleaning services. As such, the EFCI
and its Members believe that artificially increasing or forcing minimum wages is nothing but an added
challenge for labour-intensive sectors. We understand that the focus on pay conditions should be on the
worker’s overall acquisition power rather than on base income. For this reason,
we strongly believe that
any efforts to improve pay conditions should be made in areas such as taxation, public services,
flexibilization of wage setting schemes, prioritisation of selecting quality services in public procurement
contracts or public education. A significant improvement in these areas would directly and positively
improve the working and living conditions of millions of workers in Europe and would ultimately help
sectors such as the industrial cleaning to offer better pay.
Question 2: What are your views on the possible avenues for EU action set out in section 6.1 of this
document?
Collective bargaining
The EFCI would welcome a Council recommendation to all Member States to provide incentives to
promote well-functioning collective bargaining on wage issues. This recommendation could be
accompanied by an exercise to invest in capacity building to ensure that Social Partners are well equipped
throughout the EU (and especially, for our sector, in Central and Eastern Europe) to ensure a highly
performing Social Dialogue.
Further, the EFCI considers that, especially for labour-intensive services sectors, a closer mapping of the
implementation of the Public Procurement Directive 2014/24/EU28 in all Member States would be
needed. Additionally, the EFCI insists that a shift towards quality criteria (leaving price-focused
procurement aside) would be the best measure to improve working conditions through procurement.
Indeed, moving forward in the use of quality criteria, while forbidding malpractices leading to abnormal
pricing that result in tightening the margin regarding employment conditions would be an alternative and
a lasting way to improve social standards in sectors like ours, which are central to Europe’s social recovery2.
Clear national frameworks to set and update statutory minimum wages
Through the strong role of Social Partners and the collaboration of national administrations, collective
bargaining systems have proven successful. Therefore, the EFCI does not understand how an EU initiative
could make any improvements to well established systems. However,
the EFCI would welcome any
initiative by the EU to ensure that the role of national and sectoral Social Partners is enhanced in
Member States in which their role or functioning is not sufficiently ensured.
Further,
the EFCI opposes any initiative to interfere with Social Partners role and independence,
especially by disrupting basic provisions of wage setting systems such as the frequency of minimum wage
updates which is one of the main areas of collective agreement negotiations.
The EFCI considers that a Council recommendation to include specific indicators for minimum wage
assessment in national frameworks could be a positive tool for Social Partners to reach stable agreements
in the framework of collective bargaining. However, the reliability and availability of data on factors such
as the gross median or average wage or the net median wage is a serious concern in many national
contexts and would require clear guidelines to ensure quality criteria in data collection. As mentioned on
Question 1, an added factor to the collection and analysis of data is the fact that new forms of work,
especially seasonal, part-time and on-demand can lead to the misinterpretation of employee income data
if a new and more flexible EU approach towards the new job market trends is not considered.
Involvement of Social Partners in statutory minimum wage setting
The EFCI will welcome any form of Council recommendation aimed at strengthening the involvement of
Social Partners in minimum wage setting in all cases. However, the EFCI does not support the Commission
proposal to provide for independent experts to be associated with minimum wage setting and updating,
2 EFCI vision paper: The European Cleaning Industry: A key partner for the post-covid-19 Europe. Availab
le here.
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based on serious concerns on the selection procedure, knowledge and neutrality of such experts and the
need to preserve the role and independence of Social Partners.
Exemptions and variations
As explained in question 1, exemptions to minimum wage are necessary in many sectors to ensure the
inclusion of many population sectors into the labour market, especially in areas such as VET and social
inclusion programmes. Therefore,
the EFCI would oppose any European initiative aimed at the
elimination of the existing exemptions. However, the EFCI would welcome a Council opinion or
recommendation offering guiding criteria for their fair use.
Compliance and monitoring
Regarding the Commission’s proposal for a call to all Member States to ensure effective implementation
and compliance
with national minimum wage frameworks,
the EFCI understands that this initiative would
directly contradict the autonomy of Social Partners and Member States on this field, and therefore it is
clear that there is no need for any EU initiative in this field.
On the other hand,
the EFCI would support any EU initiative to call on Member States to strengthen
enforcement bodies such as labour inspectorates, as well as mechanisms for ensuring the application of
collectively agreed minimum wages with the objective to completely eradicate undeclared work.
Finally, following concerns on wage data availability, reliability, and collection tools
, the EFCI would
welcome a Council recommendation to Member States to reinforce their existing data collection tools
and monitoring frameworks.
Question 3: What are your views on the possible legal instruments presented in section 6.2?
First and foremost, we consider that the EU has no competences to introduce an instrument concerning
pay based on Article 153 (2) of the EU Treaty as article 153 (5), which explicitly exclude such possibility by
stating “
5. The provisions of this Article shall not apply to pay, the right of association, the right to strike
or the right to impose lock-outs.” As described, such a measure would strongly interfere with Member
States’ wage-setting systems. The role of the EU in social affairs is “
1. With a view to achieving the
objectives of Article 151, the Union shall support and complement the activities of the Member States”,
respecting the division of competences between them and the EU. Indeed, within principle 6 of the
European Pillar of Social Rights covering wages, it is clearly stated that Member States and Social Partners
are responsible for the definition of wage and minimum wage developments: “
wages should be set in a
transparent and predictable way, in full respect of national practices and Social Partner autonomy”3. This
well-established principle seems to be contradicted by an EU Directive aiming to determine aspects of
minimum wages at national level. In addition, this issue is already part of the European Semester Process,
which is the most appropriate instrument to deal with it. Indeed, the European Semester is the best tool
to identify the specific areas that need and encourage reforms at national level.
In parallel, the EFCI would welcome a set of Council recommendations in the following subjects:
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A recommendation on the provision of national incentives to promote and foster well-functioning
collective bargaining in each Member State and sector.
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A recommendation to Member States to facilitate and promote the mapping of the social clause
2014/24/EU of the Public Procurement Directive. In parallel, the EFCI would support any other EU
initiatives focused on the mapping and promotion of quality criteria in public procurement pursuing
the principle of article 67, 67.2 (a) and 67.2 (b) of the Directive.
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A comprehensive guide providing Member States with reference to specific indicators against which
minimum wage adequacy could be assessed.
3 Extracted from Article 6 of the European Pillar of Social Rights, availab
le here.
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A set of recommendations to guide Social Partners in keeping minimum wage exemptions to the
minimum necessary and considering each sector´s and country specificities, circumstances, and needs.
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A call to Member States to ensure effective implementation and compliance with national minimum
wage frameworks, and attribute to the Social Partners a key role in that respect.
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A set of guiding tools to improve Member States’ existing data collection tools and monitoring
frameworks.
Further, the EFCI would like to reiterate its full commitment with the fight against undeclared work. For
this reason, the EFCI would support any EU initiatives aimed at strengthening enforcement bodies such as
labour inspectorates, as well as mechanisms to eradicate undeclared work practices, increasing the
flexibility in recruitment and facilitating the incorporation of companies, especially in sectors specially
affected by undeclared work.
Question 4: Are the EU Social Partners willing to enter into negotiations with a view to concluding an
agreement under Article 155 TFEU with regard to any of the elements set out in section 5 of this
document?
As explained on the previous questions,
the EFCI firmly believes that any actions taken by the European
Institutions should come in the form of Council recommendations and opinions. In this context, the EFCI
would be willing to enter into negotiations with Social Partners and the European Commission to reach
a common agreement. In line with this, we would consider necessary to include these questions and
initiatives in the sectoral European Social Dialogue and analyse how they can be better developed and
implemented in each case. As the European Social Partner in the industrial cleaning sector, the EFCI is fully
committed with the European Social Dialogue and willing to actively engage in all debates and proposals
affecting the sector.
If, however, despite our strong concerns, a legal instrument based on Article 153 and in respect of ECJ
rulings, is the Commission’s way forward, the EFCI would be inclined to follow BusinessEurope’s position
on this matter.
The EFCI will be happy to provide further information, national sectoral examples and data at the
request of the Commission’s services or in the framework of a further consultation to Social Partners.
For any question on the above or other request, please contact
and
at
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