Social partners discuss 'good practices' for employment

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French trade unions and employers' associations have been conducting a study of the employment-related 'good practices' that other EU Member States have implemented under the European employment strategy. Following this initial experiment, an EU-wide network of national-level social partners involved in their countries' National Action Plans for employment will be created during the course of 2002.

Under the European employment strategy, which is in its fifth annual cycle in 2002, Employment Guidelines are issued each year by the EU institutions, on the basis of which the Member States draw up their National Action Programmes (NAPs) for employment. The Guidelines provide for social partner involvement in the NAPs - the current Guidelines state that the 'Member States shall develop a comprehensive partnership with the social partners for the implementation, monitoring and follow-up of the Employment Strategy. The social partners at all levels are invited to step up their action in support of the Luxembourg process. Within the overall framework and objectives set by these guidelines, the social partners are invited to develop, in accordance with their national traditions and practices, their own process of implementing the guidelines for which they have the key responsibility, identify the issues upon which they will negotiate and report regularly on progress, in the context of the National Action Plans if desired, as well as the impact of their actions on employment and labour market functioning.' The procedures governing such participation by the social partners in defining, assessing and implementing the NAPs are left up to individual Member States (TN0203103F).

In France, this process involves the Committee for Social Dialogue on European and International Issues (Comité du dialogue social pour les affaires européennes et internationales, CDSEI), which was re-established, strengthened and relaunched in 1998 by the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity (FR9812149N). The CDSEI is the forum for discussions between representative trade unions, employers' associations and the Ministry of Employment and Solidarity on the whole range of European and international issues. It is also specifically the venue for talks between the social partners and the Ministry on the form and substance of the NAP.

Good practices in employment

The French social partners have also engaged in an EU-wide project– named COPARSOC (Contribution des partnenaires sociaux) - with their counterparts from other Member States on two key points of the European employment strategy:

• assessment of 'employment-friendly' practices; and

• discussions between the social partners of various Member States on the NAPs implemented in each country.

The development of a compendium of employment-related good practices in the various EU countries - based on examples put forward by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the European Association of Craft and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest (CEEP) - has led in France to a series of regional debates between the government and national and local-level social partners.

Three regional meetings held in Lille, Lyons and Rennes, followed by a general conference held in Paris from 25 to 26 February 2002, provided a forum for discussions with the social partners from 12 Member States on 22 employment-friendly practices.

Overall, the participants in these initial regional meetings and the Paris conference were positive about the initiative. It served to foster mutual understanding between the various parties as well as between representatives from the various Member States involved. This was made possible through tangible exchanges of ideas drawing on the presentation of local situations, placed in their contexts, and through a desire to avoid two pitfalls: first, out-of-hand rejection of examples of practice from elsewhere; and second, wholesale importation of such practices. The various meetings and the Paris conference also showcased the link between employment and regional development, as well as the importance of resource-pooling processes.

The event organisers state that the discussions succeeded in identifying key areas in both the labour market and society as a whole where a new balance is required:

• the articulation between legislation and agreements;

• the issue of employability and the ties between education and training on the one hand and business on the other;

• the appropriate level(s) (sector, company, etc) at which collective bargaining should take place;

• the terms and conditions for occupational mobility with a view to maintaining social cohesion, and thus the question of how to stabilise career paths so as to make mobility attractive; and

• the issue of combining work and private/family life in a satisfactory way.

Several key questions remain unanswered following these meetings. First, which indicators should be used to monitor a common employment policy? Second, how is a 'good practice' to be defined? The 'Luxembourg process' of Employment Guidelines and NAPs focuses mostly on a standards-based definition of good practices to be applied unchanged, across the board, through a process of 'benchmarking' or 'calibration'. The COPARSOC project has developed a different approach, based on a transnational and EU assessment of local practices with no reference to standardisation or compromise. This approach does not supplant the legislative process, which falls under the jurisdiction of the various levels of government, or collective bargaining, which allows the social partners to find compromises over common standards.

Future moves

The Luxembourg process does not provide for convergence or experience-sharing on employment-related issues between EU Member States at social partner level. A new project has thus been launched to create a European network of social partners involved in the NAPs across the various EU countries. A central network, drawing on the experience gained from the dissemination of the compendium of good employment practices, is shortly to be created involving France, Germany and Spain, with the support of the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO) and its national centres in these countries. Social partners from these three countries will assess each others' NAPs at a meeting due to take place in Paris on 13 and 14 June 2002.

Later in the process, each of the three countries will host a similar meeting with social partners from two additional EU states, thus bringing the number of countries involved to nine. An overall assessment and report on the various meetings will be produced in late 2002, with a view to providing input on the assessment of the Luxembourg process and on the definition of employment policy in the NAPs over the coming years.

Commentary

The current initiative involving representative French employers' associations and trade unions through the COPARSOC project has undoubtedly resulted in an enhanced development and assessment process for the NAP. COPARSOC has also enabled local social partners – with their wealth of practical experiences – to participate in an EU-wide comparative project.

Some French trade unions and employers' associations have, however, been keen to avoid any erosion of the demarcation between the jurisdictions of the various parties. Both the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF) and the General Confederation of Labour-Force ouvrière (Confédération générale du travail-Force ouvrière, CGT-FO) have stated that NAPs are first and foremost government initiatives, and as such, the government's responsibility.

COPARSOC has undoubtedly significantly enhanced mutual understanding between the social partners in both France and in the EU more widely. However, it sets no legal or agreement-based standards. Nevertheless, the very success of the process has demonstrated that the EU needs a central forum where social partners can discuss employment-related issues. In the long run, this forum could provide significant initial input on employment-related issues for EU decision-makers. (Maurice Braud, IRES)