EFFAT Präsidium BRÜSSEL, 13. September 2016

Transcription

1 EFFAT Präsidium BRÜSSEL, 13. September 2016 Tagesordnungspunkt 5: AKTUALISIERUNG ÜBER EU FRAGEN Beschluss: Das Präsidium nimmt die Berichte zur Kenntniss und genehmigt die vorgelegten Berichte

2 UPDATE ON EU ISSUES a) TTIP and CETA The Secretariat is monitoring attentively the TTIP trade sustainability impact assessment commissioned by the European Commission. The Secretariat participated to a related meeting organised by the European Commission services held on 3 June and voiced concerns that the preliminary findings made baseless sweeping statements of welfare gains in the agro-food sector and disregarded the potential impacts of regulatory cooperation in restricting the regulatory power of governments. The Secretariat also put forward its views at a European Parliament hearing organised on 12 July at the occasion of the publication of a report Selling Off the Farm: Corporate Meat s Takeover Through TTIP, which exposes how giant meat industry corporations are aggressively using TTIP to lower regulations that protect public health, environmental and animal welfare, and labour standards. The report is available here: On CETA, the Secretariat has joined forces with EPSU and the ETUC to voice significant concerns about CETA and the lack of adequate protections for public services, labour standards and democratic decision-making: and b) Russian ban Both the FDT and Agriculture sectors are supporting the initiative from our affiliate in Denmark, NNF, to try enhancing the effectiveness of the EU funding response to the Russian ban and similar crisis through contingency planning and preparedness. This contingency planning would involve tools such as special measures or mechanisms to help directly employees losing their jobs in case of a trade war. The EFFAT Secretariat together with NNF are in direct contact with Parliamentary Assistants of Danish MEP Ole Christiansen and MEP Jeppe Kofod. The strategy agreed upon is to propose a revision of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) which normally provides support to people losing their jobs as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation, instead of calling for a fresh new instrument. The European Parliament is currently working on a draft report on the activities, impact and added value of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund between 2007 and EFFAT and NNF s proposed amendment to the report to clarify that the loss of jobs as a consequence of trade disputes which result in a serious shift in Union trade in goods or services is fully within the scope of the EGF has been voted through at the

3 Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament in June. It will be voted in plenary in September. c) Mobility package and posting of workers The European Commission should have issued at the end of 2015 a proposal for a mobility package that would include a review of the Posting of Workers Directive and a revision of Regulation 883 on the coordination of social security systems. However the package was postponed in light of the negotiations settlement for the UK within the EU. There is an important link between posting and the rules on social security and this link is crucial to find effective solutions against social dumping since circumvention of social security rules are part of the abusive use of posting. In March this year the European Commission finally published a proposed revised posting Directive. The most important points of the proposed text is that it exchanges the concept of minimum rates of pay for the concept of remuneration, defines as all elements of remuneration as laid down in the host Member States laws, regulations, universally applicable collective agreements and other generally applicable collective agreements. Secondly, a new paragraph is introduced dealing with subcontracting chains, allowing Member States to oblige subcontractors to respect applicable host Member States conditions for remuneration. Thirdly, a connection between the Temporary Works Agency Directive and PWD is created, meaning that posted agency workers must be treated equally to comparable workers in the user undertaking. 11 Member States (representing 22 votes) submitted observations on why the proposed revision violates the subsidiarity principle. The parliaments of the 11 Member States have given different motives why they think the proposal violates the subsidiarity principle. Some of the submissions say that equal treatment cannot be achieved with legislation, but should instead be achieved with economic growth. Some arguments are also not directly related to subsidiarity, but saying e g that the proposal would restrict free movement of workers in the EU. The ETUC wrote to the Commission, rejecting the arguments against a revision of the Posting Directive in the yellow card submissions. The ETUC demanded that the proposal should go through the normal legislative procedures with the EU governments and the European parliament involved. All trade unions in Europe, including in countries where parliaments have supported the yellow card procedure, strongly support revision of the Posting of Workers Directive said Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC. The current directive has been undermined by a series of court judgments, and a revision is absolutely

4 necessary to re-establish the fundamental principle of equal pay for equal work. This is the interests of all workers, especially posted workers and honest companies. Using posting to drive down wages and undermine working conditions benefits no one except bad employers. In July, the European Commission concluded that the proposal for a revision of the Directive did not constitute a breach of the subsidiarity principle and would therefore maintain it. Meanwhile, in the European Parliament, the Employment Committee has nominated two co-rapporteurs, one from the S & D group (Agnes Jongerius), and one from the EPP group (Elisabeth Morin-Chartier). EFFAT is fully involved in a task force on posting established by the ETUC. d) European pillar of social rights On 8 March the same day as the proposed revision of the Posting Directive was presented the European Commission launched a public consultation on a proposal for a European Pillar of Social Rights. The consultation process runs until 31 December 2016 and is available on the following web-site: herconsult=yes The consultation focuses on: - Equal opportunities and access to the labour market - Fair working conditions - Adequate and sustainable working conditions The Social Pillar will be valid for the countries of the euro area, but other Member States can also join if they decide to do so. The trade union response to the Social Pillar is coordinated by the ETUC, and EFFAT is involved in the work and also represented in the working groups (task force). The overall ETUC work on the Pillar is coordinated by Esther Lynch. In the consultation process for the Social Pillar and in the coordinated work of the ETUC, it is important to take a broad approach and to include some of the principal social rights battle areas, such as the following: 1) fundamental rights should be fundamental and not subordinated to economic freedoms; 2) some of the elements of

5 the Social Progress Protocol could be included in the Pillar; 3) rights for cross-border workers, working in the framework of several national legal regimes, have to be secured. The trade union response should also build upon existing frameworks of rights which have not been properly implemented in the EU: 1) the EU is obliged, according to the Lisbon Treaty, to accede to the European Convention of Human Rights, but the process has been delayed due to resistance from the Court of Justice of the European Union. 2) the EU should also accede to the European Social Charter of the Council of Europe, which has been ratified by most EU Member States, and which explicitly protects the right to strike and the freedom of association; 3) The EU should in their legislation proposals explicitly refer to relevant ILO Conventions, whenever such Convention exists within the policy area dealt with.