Meeting in Luxembourg on Thursday 20 June, the EU27 Ministers for Employment and Social Affairs will be called upon to validate their mandate on the revision of the European Works Councils (EWC) Directive.
On 5 June, the Member States gave the green light to the latest compromise put forward by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU (see EUROPE 13424/13).
They will also be asked to take note of a progress report on the anti-discrimination directive (see EUROPE 13431/28), as the required unanimity has yet to be achieved.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU put in “a lot of effort”, but “it was not possible”, commented a diplomatic source on 18 June, but a “very large majority of Member States” can now support the compromise.
The ministers will also debate the social dimension of the internal market (see EUROPE 13432/23) on the basis of Enrico Letta’s report and will review the ‘Quality Traineeships’ package presented in March by the Commission (see EUROPE 13432/22).
This package (directive and recommendation) raises a number of questions for the Member States, in particular concerning the relationship between the two instruments, the definition of ‘trainee’ and the level of subsidiarity.
The Commission will also present the spring package of the ‘European Semester’ fiscal process, published on 19 June.
Lunch will focus on how to ‘maximise the synergies between the new European Industrial Deal and strong social policies’.
La Hulpe. Finally, the ministers will be asked to approve a number of conclusions and confirm their support for the La Hulpe Declaration on the future of the European Pillar of Social Rights, adopted in April (see EUROPE 13392/19).
The aim of this discussion on the Declaration will be to win over the last two missing countries, namely Austria and Sweden, “so that the EU Council can approve the Declaration as a whole”, explained a diplomatic source.
However, Sweden is not expected to change its position, said another source.
Remedy current shortcomings of the European Works Councils. The proposal to revise the 2009 EWC Directive aims to close the following loopholes: the Directive will not apply to companies with existing agreements on transnational information and consultation (although it will not be compulsory to renegotiate them); - lack of gender balance in EWCs; - lack of a genuine, timely and meaningful dialogue between management and EWCs, in particular where management fails to provide a reasoned response to EWC opinions before adopting a decision on transnational issues; - legal uncertainty as to the coverage of EWC resources and the conditions under which management can require confidential treatment of information or refuse to disclose certain information to EWCs; - in some cases, lack of effective remedies and access to justice for rightsholders under the Directive; - in some cases, lack of sufficiently effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions.
The ‘general approach’ specifies, for example, the definition of transnational issues to be submitted to EWC consultation. “The concept of transnational matters covers those measures which could affect employees in a substantial way, i.e. in a way which does not affect them in a trivial manner and does not only concern individual employees or ordinary operational decisions. The standard of reasonableness should be objectively ascertained, having regard to the nature and purpose of the measures that are envisaged and the circumstances of the case”, summarises the text.
On the operating costs of EWCs and special negotiating bodies that may require legal advice, it should be made clear that central management should bear the costs incurred by members of special negotiating bodies, which the latter should be required to notify in advance.
The compromise also reiterates that effective transnational consultation requires genuine dialogue between central management and European works councils or employee representatives within the framework of an information and consultation procedure. “This means that information and consultation must be carried out in such a way as to enable employee representatives to express their opinions before the decision is adopted, and that opinions expressed by European works councils or employee representatives must receive a reasoned response from central management before the latter adopts its decision on the proposed measure in question”.
But neither should the directive “prevent companies from adopting decisions in cases where the opinion of the European Works Councils has not been delivered within a reasonable time”.
Link to the general approach on EWCs: https://aeur.eu/f/cpc (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)