The European Parliament adopted (472 votes in favour, 126 against and 83 abstentions) a legislative initiative report on Thursday 21 January, in which it calls on the European Commission to present a directive to guarantee the right to disconnect as soon as possible, and this for all workers, but only after a three-year deadline for implementing the framework agreement on digitalisation concluded by the social partners in 2020 (see EUROPE 12511/1).
“The most important point of this resolution is the annexe, the legislation we are moving forward, the minimum requirements, the protection against discrimination, the right for the workers to be given full information about their rights. For us, the annexe was the biggest victory that we got during the negotiations, that were very difficult”, confided to EUROPE the rapporteur, Alex Agius Saliba (S&D, Maltese), who reported very intense lobbying on this part of the resolution. “The representative of the employers were heavily campaigning against the directive and half of the amendments tabled were all targeting to dilute or delete the annexe”.
The MEPs thus call on the Commission to present a legislative framework based on Article 153 TFEU to establish minimum requirements for telework to protect the physical and mental health of teleworkers.
This framework is expected to set out the working conditions and the provision and use of equipment. Above all, it stipulates that telework must be carried out on a voluntary basis. MEPs also demand that the rights, workload and performance standards of teleworkers should be comparable to those of traditional workers in equal employment.
According to MEPs, employers must provide workers with the necessary information, in written form, setting out their right to disconnect and the practicalities of this.
MEPs call for workers to have a right of redress and for “effective, proportionate and dissuasive” sanctions to be put in place for non-compliance with the obligations under the directive, the details of which would be determined by the Member States.
In addition, the burden of proof to show that a dismissal has not taken place on the grounds that an employee has exercised or sought to exercise his or her right to disconnect would rest with the employer and not with the employee.
According to the text voted, the social partners must also play a central role, in accordance with the European treaties, at all stages, from the drafting to the implementation of the directive, but also in the monitoring of its transposition and sanctions.
An action yes, but not right away...
The controversial amendment, tabled by the rapporteur shortly before the plenary session, according to which no legislative proposal could be made during the period of implementation of the social partners’ framework agreement on digitalisation (see EUROPE 12640/12), was adopted with a majority comparable to that of the final vote (453 votes against 168 and 61 abstentions).
Mr Saliba explained to a group of journalists the difficulty of the equation, given that this was a legislative initiative report, requiring a qualified majority. It therefore needed as many votes as possible, especially from Renew Europe and the EPP. However, as several sources explain, the EPP has cashed in its support for the report against the introduction of this three-year deadline.
This was bad news for the unions who had written a letter to MEPs rejecting the amendment. “A delay of 3 years before the Commission can bring forward an initiative = a delay of around 8 years before workers see any rights”, wrote Esther Lynch, Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, on her Twitter account.
“If the European Parliament votes for this amendment, then it has to stop also any work on AI as this is also part of this agreement”, commented a member of the German Trade Union Confederation on Twitter. A voluntary Social Partner agreement is not a moratorium for legislative action, he said. “That would be the death of Social Dialogue at European level as we know it!”
On his Twitter account, the rapporteur recalled that it was impossible for the European Parliament to interpret or even ignore the European treaties, before reiterating that several recitals called on the Commission to act quickly. “This amendment is not about postponing. The Commission has to start the process immediately, not tomorrow but today!” he told EUROPE.
Commissioner Schmit rather favourable
The day before, during a debate with the MEPs in plenary session, the Commissioner for jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, seemed rather favourable to such an initiative. “While I must welcome the fact that a number of Member States have already introduced (...) this right to disconnect (...), well, as a European, I find it difficult to accept that this right should be available to some nationals, to some workers in some countries, but not to all Europeans”, he said, before pinning his hopes on the social partners. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)