Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union made progress on several provisions of the minimum wage directive on Thursday 12 May as they took part in further trilogue talks. They showed a desire to reach an inter-institutional political agreement as soon as possible, and the meeting was shorter than expected, according to one EU source on Friday 13 May.
But while they have made progress on various articles of the proposal and believe that difficulties can be overcome on Article 4 (promotion of collective bargaining for minimum wage setting) and Article 5 (adequacy of statutory minimum wages) of the Directive, Article 6 on ‘variations and deductions’ from minimum wages remains one of the most difficult issues still to resolve.
The European Parliament wants to delete this article of the directive, which states that, in order to promote the adequacy of minimum wages for all categories of workers, Member States are invited, in consultation with social partners, to limit the use of variations in minimum wages and their application over time, as well as limiting their extent.
On Thursday, the EU Council did not present “sufficiently satisfactory solutions” for the European Parliament to lift its request, one parliamentary source said, instead calling for “stronger safeguards”.
She could not say whether one or two more trilogues would be needed to iron out views, since the co-legislators’ joint goal remains to reach an agreement by the June EPSCO Council.
The role of trade unions in this directive – something that the European Parliament wants to strengthen – has not yet been agreed either.
In terms of progress, negotiators have, for example, moved forward on Article 8 – with wording on strengthening the protection of effective access to statutory minimum wages, such as through labour inspectorates – and an agreement in principle on two paragraphs of Article 11.
Article 1 was also discussed during the last trilogue and regarding this, the negotiators removed the provisions on the gender pay gap or older workers.
No date has been set yet for the resumption of negotiations at a political level, although the next meeting is expected to take place in early June. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)