Brussels, 19/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - On 19 March, Anna Diamantopoulou, wrote a letter to European social partners in order to push forward the consultation process over the modernisation and improvement of employment relations begun on 20 June 2000 (see EUROPE of 23 June, p.12). This second phase of consultations will concentrate on the theme of teleworking, starting with a number of general principals: volunteering, guarantee to maintain the employees status, equal treatment and providing tailored training, information to provide to teleworkers, taking on of costs by employer, protection in terms of health and safety, working time, protection of the private life and personal data, maintaining contact with employers, collective rights of teleworkers, access to telework. The Commission invites the social partners to hand it an opinion or a recommendation on the content of the envisaged proposal (Article 138 paragraph 3 of the EC Treaty) or to inform it of their desire to begin the negotiation process on the basis of this proposal (Article 138 paragraph 4 and Article 139 of the EC Treaty).
EUROPE recalls that the European employers (UNICE) recently proposed to European trade unions (ETUC) to negotiate a legally non-binding agreement on telework and that the ETUC had answered by underlining that a possible agreement on telework should be binding for the signatory social partners (see EUROPE of 9 March, p.13). Let us also note that the European Confederation of Executives and Managerial Staff (CEC) had brought its support to the opening of negotiations in the field of telework.