ETUC seeks action from Portuguese Presidency on a range of initiatives

In January 2000, the European Trade Union Confederation published its recommendations for action during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Council. It believes that the Presidency should be seeking to create full employment and wants to see progress on the draft Directive on national employee information and consultation rights. In addition, ETUC is keen for progress on the recently-announced Article 13 anti-discrimination package and action on a number of social affairs issues.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) published a memorandum to the Portuguese Presidency on 12 January 2000. In this document, ETUC sets out its recommendations for action during the Portuguese Presidency of the European Council of the first half of 2000 (EU0001220N).

In the employment field, the ETUC's recommendations include:

• seeking full employment and social cohesion;

• improving national employee information and consultation rights through adoption of the current draft Directive;

• establishing an "industrial change observatory";

• implementing the Article 13 "anti-discrimination package"; and

• revising and reforming a variety of existing social affairs measures.

Full employment

The first recommendation contained in the memorandum focuses on a "post-EMU strategy for full employment". ETUC considers that with annual economic growth rates of around 3% forecast for 2000 and 2001, average unemployment in the EU will fall to 8% of the workforce by the end of 2001. However, it believes that the EU should be actively working towards the goal of full employment by the middle of the decade.

To this end, ETUC welcomes the extraordinary European Council meeting due to take place in Lisbon on 23-24 March 2000, entitled Employment, economic reform and social cohesion – for a Europe of innovation and knowledge. ETUC hopes that the Lisbon summit will be able to draw together the conclusions of past summits which have dealt with employment, notably the Luxembourg Council in November 1997 (EU9711168F), the Cardiff Council in June 1998 (EU9806109F) and the Cologne Council in June 1999 (EU9906180N).

According to ETUC, the forthcoming Lisbon summit should enact the European employment pact, devised by the German Presidency in 1999 and discussed at the June 1999 Cologne Council, by integrating the conclusions of the Lisbon summit into existing procedures rather than creating new ones. ETUC general secretary Emilio Gabaglio stated that: "The Lisbon Jobs Summit this March should mark a turning point in EU economic and social policy and make the European employment pact the lever for change. I firmly believe all the conditions are in place for that. The Union must now show a commitment to getting back on track towards full employment in the medium term."

ETUC is also pleased that the term "social cohesion" features in the title for the Lisbon summit, as it believes that this is an issue which needs to be addressed, especially in terms of reducing the prosperity gap between people and between rich and poor regions. ETUC hopes that the Lisbon summit will set targets in these areas on the basis of best practice across Europe.

Employee information and consultation rights

Ensuring that all workers across the EU enjoy the same rights to information and consultation and have the opportunity to participate in managing change is a priority for ETUC. It believes that "the participation of employees and their representatives in managing change is a permanent and fundamental factor for the success of any undertaking."

ETUC therefore wants the Presidency to commence work on the proposal for a Council Directive establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community, which was issued by the Commission in November 1998 (EU9912218F) but has yet to be discussed in the Council of Ministers (EU9911211F).

Industrial change observatory

The "high-level group on economic and social implications of industrial change" (EU9805106N), in its report to the Vienna European Council in December 1998, recommended the establishment of an "industrial change observatory". ETUC wants the Presidency to make progress on setting up this body.

The role of the observatory would be to feed into policy strategies on industrial change. It would be attached to the Commission and link into the European-level sectoral social dialogue. ETUC believes that an observatory would contribute to making the sectoral social dialogue more dynamic in terms of modernising the organisation of work and developing a more forward-looking industrial policy.

Implementing the anti-discrimination package

ETUC welcomes the Commission's anti-discrimination proposals, presented in November 1999 on the basis of Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty (EU9912218F). This package of proposals includes:

• a proposal for a Council Directive establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation;

• a proposal for a Council Directive implementing the principle of equal treatment between persons irrespective or racial or ethnic origin; and

• a proposal for a Council Decision establishing a Community action programme to combat discrimination, 2001-2006.

Support for the initiatives is pledged by ETUC, which has asked the Presidency to make progress in this area, maintaining that: "It is widely recognised that the fight against discrimination must be developed through common action at the European level in order to safeguard the respect of human rights, as well as the basic principles of equality of opportunity, social justice and social cohesion."

A hope is also expressed by ETUC that the Presidency will aim to integrate anti-discrimination and social inclusion initiatives into policies connected to the European employment strategy.

Social affairs

ETUC is seeking action in the a number of other areas of social affairs:

• social security. ETUC believes that a decision should be reached on extending Regulation 1408/71 on the coordination of social security schemes so that it covers third-country nationals who are legal residents and are legally employed in the EU. ETUC contends that the extension of the Regulation would help such workers if they are posted to a Member State other than the one in which they reside. It would also like the Presidency to begin discussion on reforming the Regulation to cover pre-retirement and to encourage the cross-border mobility of jobseekers who are claiming unemployment benefit;

• working time. ETUC wants to see progress on extending Directive (93/104/EC) on certain aspects of the organisation of working time to include previously excluded sectors and activities such as road transport (EU9910203F).

• maternity rights. ETUC would like the Presidency to begin work on revising Directive 92/85/EC on the health and safety of pregnant workers, workers have recently given birth or workers who are breastfeeding. In March 1999, the Commission issued a report on the implementation of this Directive (EU9904165F) and the European Parliament is currently working on a report;

• equal treatment. ETUC would like to see a revision of Directive 76/207/EEC on the implementation of the principle of equal treatment for women and men as a regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion and working conditions. It believes that the Directive should be reformed to include provisions on sexual harassment at the workplace, claiming that research shows that proper procedures can help combat harassment; and

• future of social policy. ETUC is calling for a follow-up to the Commission's Social Action Programme 1998–2000 (EU9805104F) in order to provide a framework and direction for the development of future social policy.

Commentary

The ETUC memorandum to the Portuguese Presidency represents a relatively long "wish list" across a range of areas. Although the Portuguese Presidency has plans to work on a number of social policy dossiers during the first six months of 2000, as stated in its Presidential priorities, it is clear that the chances of all ETUC's wishes being granted are slim.

ETUC's particular desire for progress in the area of national employee information and consultation shows a certain amount of frustration at the lack of action in this area, which is understandable given that the Commission first issued its proposals in November 1998. Although these proposals were not discussed in Council during the German and Finnish Presidencies of 1999, there is now a glimmer of hope that progress will be made under the Portuguese Presidency, as Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou told the European Parliament in November 1999 that she was optimistic that an agreement on this proposal can be reached. ETUC will therefore doubtless be lobbying the Council to try to make substantial progress in this area over the coming six months (Neil Bentley, IRS).