On 23 September, the European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) is expected to vote on the report by Alícia Homs Ginel (S&D, Spanish) on the directive on quality traineeships. The young politician told a group of journalists on Tuesday, 2 September, that she would be advocating “the most ambitious” position possible—and this at a time when the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU will be seeking to open the trilogues immediately afterwards.
In its June mandate, the Council of the EU had, in fact, reduced the scope of the directive, which only covers a quarter of European trainees (see EUROPE 13663/2), and focused solely on open market traineeships.
While a preliminary agreement seems to have been reached among the committee’s pro-European groups before the summer break, the Spaniard notably wants to insist that unpaid traineeships be explicitly banned, that the duration of traineeships be limited (to no longer than six months, except where extensions are justified), and that access to social protection be provided in accordance with national schemes.
As far as remuneration is concerned, there is also no question of setting a threshold in the draft directive; rather, this remuneration should be based on the directive on adequate minimum wages, which Member States are in the process of transposing.
“We don’t have that much [...] data, but the data that we have [says that] nearly half of the trainees [...] don’t receive any payment at all [...]. [For] the other half, a huge percentage is also just reimbursed [costs], like maybe the [cost of] transport”, explained the MEP. “[In] the end, it is generating [a] situation [where] just the ones [whose] parents can afford it [...] can” take part in traineeships.
The representative is also advocating a clear, precise definition of traineeships as well as solid guarantees where equal treatment and access to trade unions are concerned.
In particular, the socialist MEP drew from the study by Joanna Helme, from the University of Oxford, relating the various legal problems at the EU level (see the study: https://aeur.eu/f/i8k ).
The author of the report explained that the first challenge is the lack of a clear definition of what a trainee is: whether it is a job title or a legal status that has no substantive rights attached to it. “The second challenge is that the Court of Justice has consistently classified trainees as ‘workers’. [T]here’s a fundamental overlap between the definition of a worker under the Court of Justice’s case law and the notion of a ‘quality traineeship’ under the EU’s recommendation”, she said.
The third challenge is the risk of discrimination. “And so, traineeships—particularly unpaid traineeships—possibly undermine the EU’s principles on equal treatment and non-discrimination [...] if a trainee does the same work as a worker but [has fewer] rights [...]. The same goes for an apprentice. If the apprentice is receiving a qualification and a wage but a trainee isn’t despite [having] the same purpose, [...] then you have the risk of discrimination based on personal characteristics”, she explained.
If the EMPL calendar is adhered to, the plenary confirmation vote is expected to take place during the first week of October. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)