Brussels, 27/01/2009 (Agence Europe) - On 21 January, the European Parliament's employment and social affairs committee adopted by 44 votes in favour, 2 against, with no abstentions, the report of vice chairman Jean-Louis Cottigny (PES, France) on assessing transposition of directive 2002/14/EC establishing a general framework on information and consultation of workers. This report will be subject to a vote at the European Parliament's plenary session in February in Brussels.
The Cottigny report is being sent to member states that are late in transposing this directive and it calls on them to rectify this matter as soon as possible and transpose the directive into national legislation. Member states that have not included employee thresholds into their calculations, on which the directive is based, as well as young workers, part-time and temporary workers, will have to revise their legislation to include these categories in it. These employee thresholds are not supposed to exclude micro-companies from the directive's field of application. Member states also have to transpose the notion of “information” in compliance with the wording of the directive and therefore within a reasonable time limit (before consultation) so that workers' representatives can examine the data provided before a decision is taken by management, particularly if the decision threatens employment conditions. Sanctions against employers who do not respect these workers' rights must be efficient, proportionate and dissuasive. Member states cannot hide behind the subsidiarity principle to avoid the directive.
The report also recommends that the European Commission introduces any amendments in a coordinated way that removes any overlapping or contradictions with different directives involving information and consultation of employees (European Works Councils, Collective Redundancies, Transfer of Undertakings, General Framework on Informing and Consulting employees, Statute for a European Cooperative Society, Statute for a European Company). (G.B./transl.rh)