Brussels, 26/07/2013 (Agence Europe) - They are “relevant, effective and coherent”. Thus runs the main conclusion of the European Commission's quality evaluation of the three directives on information and consultation of workers. The results of this evaluation were published on Friday 26 July and show that the benefits generated by these directives “are likely to outweigh the costs” - even if several shortcomings and insufficiencies were identified.
In 2010, the Commission - along with the member states and employees' and employers' associations - began work on re-evaluating several directives in four different areas. With regard to employment and social policy, the choice was made for three pieces of legislation - Directive 98/59/EC on collective redundancies; Directive 2001/23/EC on transfers of undertakings; and Directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework on information and consultation of workers in the European Community. Taken together, these directives form the basis of the fundamental social right to information and consultation.
In prescribing minimum requirements for the member states, these directives have been able to preserve a sufficient degree of flexibility in order to accommodate the specificities of each country, particularly with regard to labour relations systems, the Commission concludes in its working document. The current period of crisis has provided additional evidence of the benefits of these directives. They “seem to have contributed to cushioning the shock of the recession and restructurings”, because they favour “maintaining employment and lowering adjustment costs through the use of internal flexibility”.
Are we therefore approaching perfection as regards European legislation? Not at all - as the Commission also notes “gaps and shortcomings” with regard to the scope and application of the directives. This particularly concerns the exclusion of small businesses, public administration and seafarers from the scope of application of the directives. Another problem is linked to the fact that “a large number of the establishments covered by the directives do not have information and consultation bodies, since information and consultation are employees' rights that require action on their side in order to be exercised in practice”. Even when these bodies exist, their power of influence is “often limited or formal”.
So what does the Commission intend to do about these “gaps and shortcomings”? It does not intend to put forward new legislation. “The evidence is currently not sufficient or compelling enough to justify it”, the working document states. It will, instead, be up to the member states to remedy the shortcomings, even if the Commission is currently examining the justification that lurks behind the exclusion of seafarers, and the possibility of consolidating or simplifying all the directives. In the face of a certain degree of ineffectiveness having been observed in the bodies set up within businesses, the promotion of a “culture of social dialogue” and awareness raising campaigns should bring an appropriate solution, the Commission believes. (JK/transl.fl)