On Wednesday 24 November, the Member States’ ambassadors to the European Union (Coreper I) are expected to discuss the Slovenian EU Council Presidency’s latest proposal on the Minimum Wages Directive with a view to reaching a political agreement in principle (‘General approach’) at the Employment and Social Policy Council (EPSCO) on 6 and 7 December.
The proposal, dated 18 November and obtained by EUROPE, confirms the EU Council’s general tendency of relaxing the provisions of the text (see EUROPE 12828/11), due to strong opposition from certain Member States (notably the Scandinavians) who want to safeguard their national systems, in this case the autonomy of the social partners.
Thus, the Presidency notes the modification of the title of the text to emphasise that it sets out first and foremost a European framework to strengthen national minimum wages. In the same spirit, it clarified the differences between statutory minimum wages and those negotiated by the social partners, and hybrid systems.
On collective bargaining coverage, the text provides that the 70% threshold is given as an indication and not as an objective in itself. It sets the threshold below which an action plan to strengthen collective bargaining must be presented either by the States or by the social partners, depending on national models.
As for how to assess the adequacy of minimum wages, Member States have more flexibility in the choice of indicative references. The European Commission’s proposal to use the internationally accepted definition of the poverty line (50% of average gross earnings and 60% of median gross earnings) as a reference for defining the adequacy of a minimum wage has been strongly criticised since the beginning of the negotiations.
The possibilities for variations and deductions from statutory minimum wages have been left to the discretion of Member States, as long as the principles of proportionality and non-discrimination are respected.
The conditions for data collection have also been relaxed, with a report to be made on the minimum wage situation every two years, instead of annually as foreseen in the text proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 12591/8).
In the European Parliament
The European Parliament adopted a report in committee that was more ambitious in many respects, for example setting collective bargaining coverage at 80% and including the poverty line in the body of the text to assess the adequacy of minimum wages (see EUROPE 12831/19). However, the text is being contested by a group of MEPs (mainly Scandinavians), and the mandate is expected to be put to a vote during the November plenary session, according to information gleaned on Friday 19 November (see EUROPE 12836/10).
For the Presidency’s text: https://bit.ly/3oSHj2B
To see the European Parliament’s compromise amendments: https://bit.ly/3kqIXHl (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)