The EU Ministers for Labour and Social Affairs, meeting in Luxembourg on 20 June, are only expected to take note of a progress report on the Commission’s proposal for a directive on quality traineeships and the accompanying proposal for a recommendation (see EUROPE 13375/14).
Presented on 20 March, the draft directive has yet to convince the Member States at this stage, with several delegations raising issues of subsidiarity and scope and pointing out the vagueness of some of the definitions, such as that of ‘trainee’.
Furthermore, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has not yet proposed a compromise since the text was presented.
In its directive, the Commission established a principle of non-discrimination against trainees doing the same work as another employee, including in terms of remuneration, and a recommendation asking Member States more explicitly to remunerate trainees “fairly”.
At the end of April, when an initial working group met, the delegations had already discussed the relationship between the directive (which is binding) and the recommendation (which is non-binding), the potential creation of a third status for workers and the role of labour inspectorates.
On 20 June, however, the ministers will be called upon to take a position on European Works Councils, potentially confirming the proposed revision of the 2009 directive, and may still attempt to reach agreement on the directive on combating discrimination. The EU Council’s agenda is due to be finalised on Wednesday 29 May.
We contacted the Belgian Presidency but they had not responded to our requests by the time of going to press. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)