The social partners have failed to reach an agreement in the first phase of the consultation on the review of the Written Statement Directive. European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs Marianne Thyssen and Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis made this announcement during a report back on the follow-up to the European pillar of social rights and negotiations between social partners on Monday 25 September. The unions would like to reach a collective agreement but this willingness is less forthcoming on the side of the employers.
It should be pointed out that the announcement to revise the directive on the employers’ obligations to inform workers of the conditions applicable to work contracts or relations (Directive 91/533/EEC) was made following the presentation of the pillar of social rights last April (see EUROPE 11775). The Commission explains that it would like to dust down the more than 20-year-old directive, in an effort to expand its scope to new forms of employment, as well as to improve the chronology and content of information and ultimately reduce the current legal ambiguity for employers and situations involving unfair competition.
According to the Union treaties (Article 154 of the TFEU), the Commission must consult social partners before presenting proposals in the field of social policy. Social partners then have to inform the Commission whether or not they are going to begin a process for reaching a collective agreement. The duration of the process cannot exceed nine months, except for extensions agreed between the European Commission and social partners.
In this connection, the Commission could indeed be obliged to make a swift proposal, if the two commissioners are to be believed. In reply to EUROPE, Thyssen stated that “they did not agree on entering negotiations for an autonomous agreement (during the first phase)”. The commissioner explained that the unions were prepared to open negotiations but the employers’ associations were not so inclined. This information was confirmed by Dombrovskis, who referred to “a difference of opinion” between the social partners
The Commission began the second consultation phase last week. The social partners have until 3 November, explained the two commissioners, to reach a position and inform the European Commission whether they are going to begin negotiations or whether they will leave things to the Commission. Thyssen indicated that if this is the case, the Commission was prepared to present a proposal as quickly as possible, by the end of the year.
The unions want to move more quickly. In a press release, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) secretary general, Luca Visentini, stated that “the European Commission’s proposals are a decent basis for discussion”. The secretary general therefore warned the Commission “to keep clear of time-wasting by anyone who wants to kill this proposal”. ETUC Confederal Secretary Esther Lynch said that it is increasingly difficult for working people to obtain accurate information on the nature of their employment at this time of bogus self-employment and of hugely complex contracting and sub-contracting. In this connection, she welcomed the Commission proposals but said that the proposal did not cover self-employed workers appropriately and lacked clarity on how workers are paid when they first start work.
Social partners’ written responses
In its responses to the first consultation (six pages), ETUC makes a number of observations. It wants to go further in extending the scope of the said directive and removing the exceptions included, as part of the framework introduced by the European Court of Justice (C-393/10). They would like to include trainees. With regard to written information, ETUC would also like to go further than the Commission on a number of points, namely: - the definition of a “normal” working day or week; - rest times, daily and weekly; - the mention of minimum and maximum working hours per day and per week; - payments, by separating the hours of normal working hours and overtime; - and the situation of workers abroad, particularly posted workers. The unions are calling for a ban on zero contract hours.
BusinessEurope was less prolific and in a one-page document highlighted the need to begin “exploratory discussions” with ETUC. They are also clearly opposed to the Commission putting forward a proposal. In reply to EUROPE, the organisation explained that it was going to base its arguments on the second phase consultation document proposed by the Commission, in an effort to put forward their position before the deadline set out by the latter.
The organisation representing SMEs, the UEAPME, considers, on the contrary, that the unions and self-employed should remain outside the directive’s scope. UEAPME said that it was also in favour of leaving the social partners’ hands-free on this matter. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)