Brussels, 11/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday, ETUC, UNICE, UEAPME and CEEP, with Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities Commissioner Vladimir Spidla present, presented their first joint report on the implementation of the framework agreement on telework signed in July 2002. This is the only agreement ever to have been implemented voluntarily by the social partners in their respective Member States, independently of a European directive, using procedures defined in Article 139 (2) of the Treaty.
The aim of the agreement was to define a general framework to facilitate the use of telework in companies in a way that guaranteed teleworkers the same social cover as the other workers and employers an improved return from the work. According to the report, which takes initial stock of the impact of telework, almost all EU25 Member States (except Cyprus, Slovakia, Estonia and Lithuania), as well as Iceland and Norway, have implemented the telework agreement. This has been carried out in line with national industrial relations systems and traditions, either through national and sectoral agreements (France, Italy, Luxemburg, Greece, Denmark and Sweden), codes of conduct (United Kingdom and Ireland) or legislation (Czech Republic and Hungary). Telework is a developing trend, offering benefits to both workers and employees: from 4.2 million in 2002, teleworkers now number some 14 million, and represent 8% of the working population in the Netherlands and the UK, 5% in Spain, Germany and France and 2% in the Czech Republic and Hungary. As a general rule, telework is less widespread in the new Member States.
The Secretary General of UNICE the European employers' organisation Philippe de Buck welcomed the swift implementation of the agreement. “This report demonstrates the wealth of initiatives taken across Europe to implement the EU agreement on telework. It is very encouraging result showing companies' interest in this flexible form of work,” he said. John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), said “the report clearly shows that the social partners across Europe can successfully get to grips with the important issue of telework”. Mr Monks went on to say that certain questions still needed to be clarified, something he felt was perfectly natural given that this is the first autonomous framework agreement implemented by the social partners themselves. These issues, he said, would be taken up in the framework of the European social partners' work programme 2006-2008.
The General Secretary of CEEP (European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation and of Enterprises of General Economic Interest) Rainer Plassman felt that the report was a key precondition of the success of autonomous social dialogue. He welcomed the variety of tools available for the implementation which allowed the expansion of telework in certain public services and administrations where it had not been very common before 2002. “We, in the public services sector, were sceptical about how the agreement would be implemented. Today we are satisfied,” he acknowledged. Speaking for small and medium-sized enterprises, the Secretary General of UEAPME Werner Müller also welcomed the implementation of the agreement on telework, a form of flexible working that were very useful to SMEs, he said. He felt the report proved the vitality of the social dialogue at national level and hoped it would help increase the use of telework in many sectors of the economy.
Commissioner Vladimir Spidla congratulated the social partners for their dialogue leading to this concrete and innovative action which came straight from a Commission consultation process whose aim was the promotion of flexibility of working for workers so that they could have a better work-life balance. “The report shows that not only can the social partners negotiate and conclude an agreement, but they can contribute directly to its implementation”. Telework, he stressed, was not something marginal, and he added that it was a good example of “flexicurity” as promoted by the Commission. The widespread follow-up at national, sectoral and company level highlighted how the social dialogue could act as a rich source for developing innovative practices across the EU, while contributing to better regulation and better governance. It also underlined how workers and employers wished to play a more autonomous role in modernising the workplace.
Speaking about other initiatives of the same type planned by the social partners, Mr de Buck recalled current negotiations on harassment and violence in the work place, which were still part of the 2003-2005 work programme. For the next programme 2006-2008, they would assess the labour market with a view to finding better ways to integrate or train those sections of the population at risk on the labour market. The report is available at: http: //http://www.ueapme.com/docs/joint_position/061010_telework_implmentation_report_final.pdf. (il)