On Wednesday 6 November, Member State representatives discussed the proposal for a directive on quality traineeships, presented in March by the European Commission (see EUROPE 13508/14).
While the majority supported the work carried out to date by the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU to limit the scope of the directive, they did not all share the Presidency’s optimism that it will be able to obtain a qualified majority at the Employment and Social Affairs Council on 2 December. For several sources, this timetable is a little too ambitious and a progress report might be more realistic.
In a note dated 31 October, the Presidency asked the Member States to tell it whether the scope currently proposed was appropriate for them; it also expected them to give directions on the chapter (III) more specifically devoted to regular employment relationships falsely described as traineeships.
According to the memo, they had to choose between two options: “Option A) Article 4 shall aim at addressing situations where trainees purportedly do not have an employment relationship but should have one in accordance with Union law and national law, collective agreement or practice”.
Or “Option B) Article 4 shall aim at addressing situations where an employment relationship is incorrectly labelled as a traineeship, with the effect of lowering the level of protection, including working conditions and pay, that the person concerned would be entitled to in accordance with Union and national law, collective agreements or practice”.
According to one source, on 6 November a majority of Member States agreed to the reduced scope, with the Presidency having recently excluded so-called work experience placements for unemployed people.
The latest Hungarian compromises have ensured that the directive does not cover apprenticeships, vocational education and training, formal education or traineeships linked to active labour market policies.
A larger number of countries reportedly supported Option A too. But for some delegations, there is generally still work to be done to reach an agreement, in particular to clarify the occupational situations excluded from the directive’s scope. Some countries, such as France, are considering the case of trainee civil servants, whom they wish to exclude from the directive’s scope.
As a reminder, the proposed directive aims to: - improve the working conditions of trainees, ensuring that they are treated on an equal footing in terms of working conditions, including pay, with regular employees (unless different treatment is justified); - tackle cases where traineeships are used to disguise regular employment relationships, by means of checks and inspections; - ensure that trainees’ working conditions are respected, by authorising workers’ representatives to take action on behalf of trainees to guarantee their rights and by allowing them to denounce bad practices.
But on Wednesday, a number of countries also deplored the lack of ambition in the text, notably Spain, Portugal and Slovenia.
Others, such as Sweden, Denmark and Finland, reportedly continued to insist on respect for their national labour systems.
The Commission is also said to have once again expressed its disagreement with the way the work has gone and with the latest compromise, which, in its view, misses the initial objective of tackling regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships.
The next meeting of the working group will take place on 18 November. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)