EU: Social partners agree 2009-10 work programme

EU-level trade union and employers' organisations agreed a two-year joint work programme in March 2009, providing for negotiations and joint work on a range of issues, such as inclusive labour markets, employment, migration and climate change.

On this page:
Background
New work programme
Specific initiatives
Prospects.

Background

The central "cross-industry" European-level social partner organisations are:

• the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC);
• BusinessEurope, representing private sector employers;
• the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services (Ceep); and
• the European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (Ueapme).

For the purposes of EU-level social dialogue, the ETUC delegation also involves the Eurocadres/CEC liaison committee, which represents managerial and professional staff unions.

Since the early 1990s, the social partners have had a formal role in the formulation and implementation of EU employment legislation and policy (currently enshrined in arts.138 and 139 of the Treaty establishing the European Community). They are consulted by the European Commission on proposals for EU action in this field, and given the opportunity of negotiating European-level agreements on the issues concerned, which may be implemented either by EU Directives or by the social partners themselves. This process has led to agreements on parental leave (1995), part-time work (1997) and fixed-term contracts (1999), all of which were implemented by Directives, and an agreement on telework (2002), which was implemented by the social partners' national member organisations.

In addition to their consultative role, the social partners have engaged in a more independent, bipartite dialogue between themselves since the mid-1980s, which has resulted in a range of joint work and initiatives. This process is organised through a social dialogue committee, set up in 1992, along with working groups on specific themes. In 2002, the social partners decided to put their bipartite work on a more organised footing, agreeing a work programme for 2003-05, which was followed by a similar programme for 2006-08. The programmes provided for the negotiation of a number of agreements and other joint texts, along with joint analyses and activities such as seminars, studies, awareness-raising campaigns and the compilation of case studies. In the second programme, there was also a strong emphasis on following up earlier joint texts and initiatives.

Notable outcomes of the first two work programmes included:

• a framework agreement on work-related stress, signed in 2004, which was implemented by the social partners' member organisations in the member states (such self-implemented accords are known as "autonomous" agreements);
• an autonomous framework agreement on harassment and violence at work, signed in 2007;
• a joint analysis of European labour market challenges, including "flexicurity", agreed in 2007;
• a "framework of actions" on gender equality, agreed in 2005; and
• a set of "orientations for reference in managing change and its social consequences", adopted in 2003.

New work programme

On 19 March 2009, the social partners presented a new work programme at a "tripartite social summit", held before the spring European Council meeting. The programme runs for two years (from 2009 to 2010) rather than the three-year terms of its predecessors. The social partners state that this is to synchronise their work with the EU's Lisbon growth and jobs strategy. The strategy, whereby the member states agree and implement a set of integrated guidelines on economic and employment policy, runs in three-year cycles, with the current cycle covering 2008 to 2010.

In the programme, the signatories make a commitment "to jointly address Europe's major social, economic and environmental challenges", which calls for an active role by the social partners at all levels alongside that of the public authorities. The EU-level social partners believe that their third work programme will enable them to address the challenges resulting from the processes of European integration and globalisation. They are also aware of the new context created by the current financial and economic crisis and are ready to consider the short-, medium- and long-term implications this will have for workers and employers.

To foster sustainable development, the social partners believe that Europe needs to: restore economic growth; improve competitiveness, productivity and job quality; achieve full employment and social progress; and enhance environmental protection. In this context, they will seek to evaluate the "appropriate mix of macro, micro and labour market policies" conducive to stabilising the economy and to attaining sustainable growth and high levels of employment. The partners will continue to "foster the important role of autonomous social dialogue and its positive impact on European labour markets".

Specific initiatives

The following new initiatives are listed in the programme:

• a joint recommendation aimed at contributing to the definition of the EU's Lisbon agenda after 2010, taking account of the current economic and financial crisis;
• the development of a joint approach to the social and employment aspects and consequences of climate-change policies, with a view to maximising opportunities, minimising negative effects, and identifying possible joint actions;
• jointly monitoring the implementation of the EU's common principles on "flexicurity" - an approach to employment policy that combines flexibility in labour markets, work organisation and employment relations with employment and social security - notably in order to evaluate the role and involvement of the social partners in the process and to draw joint lessons; and
• jointly addressing mobility and economic migration issues and promoting the integration of migrant workers in the labour market and at the workplace, in order to identify possible joint actions.

The social partners will also continue a number of actions started under the previous work programme, notably:

• negotiation and implementation of an autonomous framework agreement on inclusive labour markets;
• finalisation of a set of national studies on economic and social change in the member states, focusing on the effective management of change and restructuring;
• negotiation of a framework of actions on employment;
• continuation of work on social partner "capacity-building" in the EU member states, candidate countries for EU membership and the European Economic Area, including further developing the activities of social partners' resource centres;
• monitoring, assessment and evaluation of the implementation of EU social dialogue framework agreements and frameworks of actions; and
• further development of the social partners' common understanding of the various instruments resulting from their negotiations, determining their impact on the various levels of social dialogue and further coordinating the various levels of social dialogue and negotiations, including the development of "better synergies" between the EU dialogues at cross-industry and sectoral levels.

The social partners will "employ a number of tools to realise this work". The work programme does not constitute an exhaustive list, and the partners may decide to update it in light of developments in the EU. Further, they will continue to monitor the implementation of the EU's growth and jobs strategy.

In addition to their autonomous work programme, the social partners will continue to act in response to European Commission proposals and initiatives.

Prospects

The third work programme is relatively limited in its content, which reflects both its shorter timeframe and a wish by the social partners to focus on the "quality" rather than the "quantity" of social dialogue. There is considerable emphasis on the implementation and evaluation of previous outcomes of the social dialogue, and on dealing with unfinished business from the 2006-08 programme. However, the new programme does place on the social partners' agenda two new substantive issues: climate change and migration. Input into EU employment and economic policy is also an important theme.

In terms of developments arising from the EU-level social dialogue that will potentially have a concrete effect at national level, the main initiative in the 2009-10 work programme is the proposed framework agreement on inclusive labour markets (still outstanding from the previous work programme). Following initial discussions, formal negotiations on this issue began in October 2008. The aim is to promote the capacity of people to enter, remain in and progress on the labour market. Any agreement reached will be autonomous - that is, implemented across the EU by the signatories' member organisations (such as the CBI and the TUC in the UK). The proposed framework of actions on employment may also be significant, although such frameworks are "softer" than agreements, laying down priorities, guidelines and actions to be promoted at national level by the social partners' member organisations, rather than making binding commitments.

The work programme deals only with the social partners' independent activities, rather than their formal EU consultative role. Two important sets of talks are currently under way in the latter area:

• following European Commission consultations on the reconciliation of professional, private and family life, in September 2008 the social partners opened negotiations over a revision of their 1995 agreement on parental leave, which was implemented by EU Directive 96/34/EC. The talks are reportedly at an advanced stage, and it seems likely that an agreement will be reached that includes an extension of the minimum duration of leave; and
• at the request of the Commission, the social partners are conducting a joint analysis of the implementation of the 1996 Directive on posted workers (96/71/EC) and the balance between economic freedoms and social rights in the EU, in the light of the controversy arising from recent European Court of Justice rulings in this area.

This article was written by Mark Carley, editor of European Employment Review.

European Employment Review 423 (EER 423) contents