While the Member States have remained generally deadlocked over the last few months on the proposal for a directive on quality traineeships (see EUROPE 13615/11), on Tuesday 22 April the Polish Presidency of the EU Council submitted a new compromise with a view to a meeting of the Working Party on Social Questions scheduled for 30 April.
In the latter text, it proposes a slight substantive, removing, for example, references to open-market traineeships in the definition of the scope of application, which might suggest a narrowing of that scope.
It thus states that Chapters II and IV of this Directive (equal treatment and implementation of the rules) should apply to trainees who have an employment contract or are in an employment relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements or practice in force in the Member States, with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, “and whose traineeship is not mandatory and is based on a bilateral agreement between the trainee and the employer, without the involvement of a third party”.
The previous text stated that it applied to trainees undertaking “open traineeships” (who have an employment contract or who are in an employment relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements or practice in force in the Member State, with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union).
For the rest, it makes a number of clarifications and adjustments, including the possibility for certain countries to treat trainees differently from the directive and the reaffirmed role of collective agreements with a new recital. This possibility had been offered in particular to the Scandinavian countries, which were anxious to preserve their system of social partners.
It also reformulates definitions, in particular of “false traineeship”, which refers to any employment relationship, as defined by national law, collective agreements, or practice in force in the Member State, with consideration to the case-law of the Court of Justice, which is presented by the employer as a traineeship, “but in fact does not […] meet the requirements of a traineeship in the meaning of this Directive and results in the individual concerned not enjoying the level of protection or working conditions afforded to a comparable employee”.
On probationary periods, the Polish Presidency also specifies that “persons undergoing a probationary period should not be understood as trainees under this Directive, unless the probationary period is part of a traineeship”.
The Presidency is also reintroducing a provision from the Commission text presented in March 2024, according to which “no provision in this Directive shall be construed as lowering the protection of workers afforded by other instruments of Union law, national law, collective agreements or practice”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)