Meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday, 20 June, EU ministers for employment and social affairs will take note of several progress reports, including the report on the directive on quality traineeships in the EU that was presented in March as well as the report on the recommendation on quality traineeships that is part of the same package (see EUROPE 13424/14).
Gathered for a Coreper meeting on Friday, 14 June, Member States’ representatives nevertheless definitively ruled out the possibility of reaching an agreement on the ‘Equal Treatment’ Directive, which will thus also be the subject of a progress report at this stage (see EUROPE 13431/28).
With regard to the ‘Traineeships’ Directive—which wishes to improve and enforce trainees’ working conditions and combat cases where traineeships are used to disguise regular employment relationships—the public report indicates, “A large majority of delegations welcomed the objective of the proposal and expressed support [for] initiatives aiming at improving the working conditions of the trainees. Delegations stressed the need for considerable time to assess the impact and consequences of this Directive on national systems”.
As for the scope, [the report states,] “Numerous delegations are sceptical regarding the scope of the proposal, and needed clarifications as regards which types of trainees and which types of traineeships fall within the scope”.
[It points out that] even after the explanations that the European Commission provided, delegations “remained critical [of the] parts of the proposal which include within their scope trainees without an employment relationship and traineeships that are mandatory to access certain professions or that are part of curricula of formal education and training”.
[According to the report,] most delegations stressed “the lack of consistency between the definitions of ‘trainee’ and ‘traineeship’ [...], given that the notion of ‘trainee’ requires the existence of an employment contract or an employment relationship, while the definition of ‘traineeship’ does not”.
Certain delegations also want a better distinction to be made between a traineeship and an apprenticeship. Several of them still have doubts about subsidiarity and the level of detail in certain provisions.
“Assessing, controlling and inspecting all types of traineeships would entail a significant increase of burden for labour inspectorates which is a concern [for] a large number of delegations”, notes the report. Social partners’ role and competences is another issue.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/cnl (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)