IR Notes

Just a few months away from the European elections, the Workers group of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) met in extraordinary session at Vienna, on 10 October, to mobilise national trade unions regarding the issues at stake in these elections. Despite the divisions and a certain fatalism in light of the rise of populism, the participants managed to establish a number of guiding principles:  1° Attacking populist parties on the basis that their policies are entirely consistent with neo-liberal theories of abolishing measures to protect jobs, as demonstrated by the plans of governments in Finland (to reduce the level of protection against dismissal in companies with fewer than 20 employees) and Austria (to increase the maximum permitted working time to 12 hours per day and 60 hours per week). However, this is not the case in all countries, e.g. Poland (see “A question for”… opposite). 2° Restricting our focus to trade union themes such as purchasing power, improving working conditions and social protection, especially for workers employed by digital platforms, and not allowing ourselves to become mired in discussions on migration and closing borders. As far as Gabrielle Bischoff (DGB), President of the Workers group, is concerned, trade unions must reassert their role as a bringer of hope for a better life and, to this end, must offer equitable solutions to meet the vast challenges represented by ecological transition, globalisation and digitalisation. 3° Rethinking the way we communicate, in order to counter the discourse and effectiveness of populist or far-right movements that are flooding the Internet and social media with fake news. Former EESC President and Greek trade unionist Georges Dassis expresses an ardent wish: “we need a great many more meetings like this”.

• Carcinogens and mutagens: On 11 October, the European Parliament and the Council managed to reach agreement on expanding the list of carcinogenic chemicals recognised in the workplace to encompass eight new products, including diesel engine exhaust gases, as part of the second revision of Directive 2004/37/EC of 29 April 2004 (see press release issued by Parliament).


• Workers to be given further information: The European Parliament’s Committee on Employment and Social Affairs has adopted a report on the proposal for a directive to promote transparent and predictable working conditions in the EU. The text, which was adopted by a large majority, will now be the subject of negotiations between the Parliament and the Council, to determine the final version of a new directive (see press release issued by Parliament).

• Reprotoxic substances: On 16 October, the European social partners in the chemical industry and the European Trade Union Confederation adopted a joint declaration supporting an extension of the scope of application of Directive 2004/37/EC of 29 April 2004 (carcinogens or mutagens at work) to encompass reprotoxic substances (see joint press release).

Parental leave does not give rise to entitlement to paid annual leave: In a ruling (CJEU, 4 October 2018, Case C12/17, Maria Dicu) concerning a Romanian judge who was applying to take paid annual leave in connection with a period of time spent on parental leave, the ECJ pointed out that “the objective of allowing the worker to rest presupposes that the worker has been engaged in activities which justify (…) his being given a period of rest, relaxation and leisure”. Accordingly, entitlement to paid annual leave must, in principle, be determined “by reference to the periods of actual work completed under the employment contract”. Admittedly, the Court has accepted that periods not worked can be taken into account for the purpose of calculating entitlements to paid annual leave, notably maternity leave (CJUE, 18 March 2004, Case C-342/01, Merino Gómez) and sick leave (CJEU, 24 January 2012, Case C‑282/10, Dominguez). However it refuses to apply this case law to parental leave: “the period of parental leave (…) cannot be treated as a period of actual work for the purpose of determining that worker’s entitlement to paid annual leave” (see press release issued by the Court).

Conference on European Works Councils: At the conference on European Works Councils organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and held on 10 and 11 October in Brussels, Stefan Olsson, one of the directors of the European Commission’s DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, rejected the idea of intervening via a further revision of the European Works Councils Directive to remedy the weaknesses of the text. In his view, more factual information needs to be obtained to justify legislative intervention. At this stage, all that is required is the guide to good practice announced by the Commission. However, its outlines, content and publication date still remain very vague. Peter Scherrer, ETUC’s Deputy Secretary General, commented that ETUC was certainly not intending to collaborate on the writing of the guide, just as it had not been involved in evaluating the directive.

• Towards an increase in the minimum wage: The anti-austerity budget unveiled on 11 October by the socialist government with the support of its radical left-wing ally Podemos, is strongly focused on social measures. If the budget is adopted, which is by no means certain, given the composition of Parliament, the minimum wage will be raised from 735 to 900 euros per month, based on 14 monthly payments (i.e. 1050 euros per month over a 12-month period), retirement pensions will be index-linked to inflation, and a gradual alignment of maternity and paternity leave is planned. The proposal appears to call into question a section of the previous labour market reform by reaffirming that any collective agreement reaching its term will continue to apply until such time as a new one has been signed.

Revision of the agreement: On 17 October, the aerospace group Airbus SE renewed its Airbus SE-Works Council Agreement, in order to adapt this to the company’s new organisational structure.  The European Works Council of the Airbus division is disappearing, but within the SE Works Council, the agreement creates a special committee dealing with operational matters specific to commercial aviation. The subjects on which the Council must be kept informed now include the company’s policies in the areas of ethics and compliance, responsibility and sustainability (CSR). A meeting will be held once every two years to examine the strategy of the group and its divisions. The agreement provides for the creation of “a specific joint working group tasked with looking into a subject that merits examination in greater depth”.

• Strengthening the Council: On 28 September, the Vinci group revised its European Works Council agreement. In addition to increasing the resources allocated to the Council, the text raises the workforce size threshold required (from 150 to 500 employees) for a country to be represented on the Council and adds two new scenarios calling for “automatic” consultation. One of these two scenarios involves the acquisition or disposal “of a company with at least 500 employees, regardless of its sales turnover and whether workers are employed in more than one country or not”, meaning that major operations involving a single country can be dealt with.


• Council reaches parity but demands consultation rights in addition to its information procedure: Following its recent elections, the European Works Council of the Safran group (92,000 employees) has reached parity in terms of the six members sitting on its Executive Committee, three of whom are women, including the secretary. It now also includes representatives of Zodiac Aerospace, which has been purchased by Safran (see press release). The Council, which aims to further improve “its efficiency to cope with a rapidly changing environment”, has called for a consultation procedure to be implemented regarding a proposed restructuring affecting 500 employees of a Zodiac Aerospace site in Germany, arguing that this was a transnational issue (see press release).

• Global body created: In parallel with renegotiating the European Works Council agreement, the management of Airbus (see above) has unilaterally set up a global body, the Airbus Global Forum, staffed by members of the European Works Council select committee and trade union officials from the main countries in which the company is established outside the EU.

• Fundamental rights: On 12 October, the German car parts manufacturer and defence industry supplier Rheinmetall (24,000 employees) renewed its global framework agreement with the IndustriAll Global Union federation, which expressed its satisfaction at re-establishing a social dialogue with management (see IndustriAll press release).

World Union Council: The World Union Council (WUC) of the Swedish group SKF, which is specialised in the manufacture of bearings, met in Turin, from 2 to 4 October, to debate the consequences of Industry 4.0, flexibility, health and safety. “This is a unique opportunity to raise the questions that we have towards the management”, explained Kennet Carlsson (IF Metall), Chairman of the WUC (see IndustriAll press release).

• Failure to honour fundamental rights: 19 national trade-union federations, under the auspices of Global Union ICT, have adopted a declaration denouncing the failure of the French telemarketing group Teleperformance (223,000 employees) to honour fundamental rights and its refusal to commit to negotiating a global framework agreement.