IR Notes

“We need to be able to get the Member States to accept that European demographic change will necessitate an opening of our borders, while at the same time reassuring them.” This policy will be a “fundamental priority in order to meet the challenges and harness the opportunities provided by migration in an era of globalisation”. These comments were made by the European Commission when it presented its annual work programme in 2009. On 13 May of this year, the Commission published a communication for a “European agenda on migration” in which it stressed that demographic change and the need to remain competitive demand an increase in legal migration in order to preserve the European social model. For many years now, the Commission has been preparing people mentally for a rise in immigration to safeguard the European economy and the European social model, without managing to win over and stem the tide of national self-interest sustained by populist movements across Europe. This is why the recent statements by Angela Merkel are to be applauded: Germany is undoubtedly the country with the greatest awareness of the need to get ahead of the demographic curve in order to maintain the productive capacity of a country facing the challenge of an ageing active population. But beyond this understanding that immigration is a solution rather than a problem, Germany is also the country that is attracting the most migrants and where they are being received with the massive support of the population. Germany appears to have understood what is at stake, much better than its neighbours in the east who do not feel concerned, or those playing it safe politically, hoping to avoid a right-wing surge. Angela Merkel can thus legitimately claim that “universal civil rights have so far been closely linked with Europe and its history. If Europe fails on the question of refugees, this close connection with universal civil rights will be destroyed and it won’t be the Europe we want.” To draw a comparison, no-one still imagines that a European company will succeed on a global level if it recruits only people from its home country. How does Europe intend to meet the challenge of globalisation if it closes its doors to vital forces ready to sacrifice everything to join and help sustain the European social and democratic model?

• Work-life balance: The European Commission on 3 August presented a roadmap to address the challenges of work-life balance faced by working families. This initiative had been announced following the Commission’s decision to withdraw its proposed revision of the maternity leave directive (see IR Notes 36). It is aimed at increasing the participation of women in the labour market and combating pay inequality in particular by improving access to flexible working arrangements for both women and men and encouraging the take-up of paternity and parental leave by men. The Commission proposes to act by both legislative and non-legislative measures, or by a combination of the two.


• Work programme of the European social partners: The European social partners on 15 July presented their fifth autonomous work programme 2015-2017, putting forward a “partnership for inclusive growth and employment” (see press release). They also adopted an in-depth EU employment analysis, focused on the functioning of European labour markets. The new work programme includes the commitment to negotiate a European collective agreement on active ageing. It will be preceded by a joint seminar to take national practices into account. This seminar also aims at ensuring a better application of voluntary agreements. The social partners have planned to make joint visits to the five countries where the situation is regarded as problematic. The social partners are also going to prepare joint conclusions promoting a better reconciliation of work, private and family life and gender equality in order to reduce the gender pay gap. Policies promoting a work-life balance could help to achieve a reduction in the pay gap. This is also the line taken by the “Roadmap” adopted by the European Commission (see above).


• New interventions from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF): The European Commission this summer proposed three new cases for assistance from the EGF. The requests for payment by the latter are as follows: € 6.9 million to Germany to help 2,692 workers made redundant by the car manufacturer Adam Opel and one of its suppliers to find new jobs (see press release); € 6.2 million to Belgium to facilitate the return to employment of 4,500 workers made redundant in Belgium by Ford and eleven of its suppliers and downstream producers (see press release); and finally, € 1.4 million to assist 184 of the 1,249 workers made redundant by the airline Alitalia to find new jobs (see press release).

• Parental leave: The European Court of Justice has ruled on a Greek case concerning a judge who was denied the right to take parental leave on the grounds that his wife was not in work and therefore able to look after their child (CJEU, 16 July 2015, case C-222/14, Konstantinos Maïstrellis). In the eyes of the Court, legislation under which “a male judge is not entitled to parental leave in a situation where his wife does not work or exercise any profession, unless it is considered that due to a serious illness or disability the wife is unable to meet the needs related to the upbringing of the child” is incompatible with EU law.

• Compulsory registration of workers in the meat sector: Following an initial measure aimed at combating fraud and social dumping in the building sector, a programme law dated 10 August 2015 makes it compulsory to register employees present at the workplace in the meat sector. This obligation applies to all employees as well as self-employed and posted workers who work in abattoirs, cutting plants or meat and meat product processing plants.

Clarification concerning the scope for a trade union to denounce a European works council information process: The French and British trade unions, CGT and UNITE, lodged an appeal against the management of the Total group relating to restructuring plans affecting refining operations at two sites, one in France, the other in Great Britain. The two unions believed that the EWC should have been informed and consulted at a plenary meeting. The court hearing the matter (see ruling of the court of first instance of Nanterre, 17 July 2015) noted that the plans had been examined by a commission formed by the EWC for this purpose, which had received an information document from the management outlining the two proposals. It found that “neither the EWC nor the office responsible in particular for ensuring compliance with the rights attributed to the EWC – which was ultimately not convened on the matter in dispute – questioned the procedural arrangements for informing the European body by demanding, in particular, a consultation” on the two plans. In the eyes of the court, the two trade unions could “not take the place” of the EWC or the office “”in order to make a concrete evaluation of the relevance and arrangements of a procedure that had effectively been implemented”.

• Controversial proposals to reform the right to strike: The government has presented draft legislation (Trade Union Bill, En) which aims to make trade union and strike law “fair for working people” because “a small minority of trade union members can fundamentally disrupt the lives of millions of commuters, parents, workers and employers.” Under the current legislation, industrial action can be called by a trade union by simple majority of the workers concerned. The proposed legislation intends to tighten these rules: a majority vote will still be required, but the ballot turn-out must exceed a threshold of 50%. Furthermore, in six key public services, the number of workers voting to strike must represent at least 40% of all the employees eligible to vote. In the opinion of experts, this tightening of the demands that must be satisfied before industrial action can be taken makes it practically impossible to organise a strike. In addition, employers would be permitted to hire temporary agency staff to replace striking employees. The government has launched several open consultations on different aspects of its draft legislation and invites responses by 9 September. For its part, the IndustriAll European trade union federation has called on its members and European works councils to submit responses to the open consultations and to oppose the government bill (see press release and letters).

• Randstad: The employment agency group Randstad has signed an agreement establishing a European works council to replace the existing consultation structure created in 1996 (see UNI Europa press release). The agreement can be consulted on the website of the European Trade Union Institute.


• Sika: The European works council of the Swiss chemicals group Sika (17,000 employees) on 27 July sent an open letter to the chairman of the Saint-Gobain group requesting guarantees for employees in connection with the planned acquisition of Sika by the French group. The European works council is calling for a three-year undertaking from Saint-Gobain that it will maintain jobs at all Sika sites and will not erode employment conditions in terms of salaries and social benefits.

ABN AMRO: The management of the Dutch bank ABN AMRO, the UNI Global Union international trade union federation and its Dutch affiliate FNV have signed a global framework agreement on fundamental social rights. ABN AMRO is the first bank in the Netherlands to take this step (see UNI Global Union and ABN AMRO press releases).

• Solvay: The signatories to the global framework agreement of Solvay (26,000 employees) on 28 July gave a presentation on the state-of-play of industrial relations at group level to the Bureau for Workers’ Activities (Actrav) of the ILO and representatives of different ILO departments, as reported by the IndustriAll Global Union international trade union federation (see press release).

• Coca-Cola: Reacting to the announcement made at the end of July of the proposed merger of the various Coca-Cola bottling companies in Europe – Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE), Coca-Cola ibérique Partners SA (CCIP) and Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG (CCEAG) – the trade union federation Effat has expressed its concerns about the potential negative impact of this merger on jobs for the 25,000 European employees affected (see press release).

• Report on the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund: The European Commission has published a Report on the activities of the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund (EGF) for 2013-2014. The EGF has assisted a total of 27,610 workers made redundant because of the economic crisis and the effects of globalisation to find new job opportunities. In total, more than € 114.4 million were spent over the two years to support workers in thirteen Member States through their professional transition. Since the Fund was created, Spain has submitted the most requests for EGF aid (20), followed by the Netherlands (16), Italy (12) and Denmark (10).