IR Notes

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, appears determined to advance the cause of one of his campaign promises: “In our Union, the same work at the same place should be remunerated in the same manner”. He recalled this objective before the College of Commissioners on 6 October (see Commission press release), having announced it on 15 July in his political guidelines (p. 7). With immediate effect, EU commissioner Marianne Thyssen, who last October favoured tackling this issue only in two years’ time, has been mandated to orchestrate Jean-Claude Juncker’s decision. “Let’s see if we can establish the principle of equal pay for equal work in the same workplace for posted workers,” Marianne Thyssen explained. The aim is to combat social dumping, which has a very damaging effect on European public opinion. The intention is clearly laudable. At present, directive 96/71 on the posting of workers stipulates that a worker posted to another member state by his employer to perform work must be remunerated at least at the applicable minimum wage level determined by legally binding collective agreement or local legislation. Conscious of numerous cases of fraud or “social optimisation” perpetrated by companies in connection with worker posting, the 28 EU countries adopted directive 2014/67, a so-called “enforcement directive” whose aim is to strengthen the implementation of directive 96/71. Yet Jean-Claude Juncker appears to want to go further: according to him, a posted worker on the territory of another member state should be paid at the level of a comparable worker doing the same job and not at least at the level of the minimum wage. In other words, it would no longer be possible for companies located in low-wage EU countries to benefit from the competitive advantage of lower salaries to win contracts in member states where wages are higher. However, the principle of “equal pay for equal work” is coming up against intense lobbying by employers: BusinessEurope sent a letter to Marianne Thyssen on 5 October, asking her “not to open the Pandora’s box of problems and disagreements by proposing a revision of the posting of workers directive” with serious arguments. The concept of “equal pay for equal work” raises a large number of practical and legal problems: what should the notion of pay cover? How to measure equal work? Should an employee from a high-wage country who is posted to work in a low-wage country then also be remunerated on the same level as local workers? Furthermore, any such proposal can only meet with opposition from all countries whose companies are successful thanks to the provision of services in other member states. The European Trade Union Confederation for its part expressed its position in its action programme 2015-2019 (point 312): first, it will monitor the successful transposition of the enforcement directive before working towards a revision of the posted workers directive that could then include the principle of “equal treatment for equal work”, which goes beyond the “equal work, equal pay” mantra. The Commission will shortly have at its disposal a report that it commissioned on wage determination practices in EU countries and the notion of a minimum wage in the meaning of 96/71. This document will inform the deliberations of the Commission, which intends to present its “labour mobility package” before the end of the year. The discussions are just beginning, and they will be tough.

• Information and consultation for seafarers: Directive 2015/1794 of 6 October 2015, which allows general information and consultation law to be applied to seafarers, has been published in the Official Journal of the European Union. It amends five directives excluding seafarers from rights to information and consultation or allowing the member states to waive them. One interesting point that could be invoked if and when directive 2009/38 on European works councils – which will now apply to them – is revised, is the addition in article 10, paragraph 3 of the directive to grant a member of a special negotiating body or of a European works council who is unable to attend a meeting, the possibility “of using, where possible, new information and communication technologies” in order to enable him to participate.

• Pay equality between men and women: The European Parliament on 8 October adopted, by a very large majority, a resolution intended to strengthen the implementation of directive 2006/54 of 5 July 2006 (recast) on equal opportunities and equal treatment of men and women in matters of employment and occupation. According to the resolution, the directive has still not been fully implemented; only France and the Netherlands have transposed it correctly. The MEPs put forward several initiatives, such as 1. To introduce ” mandatory pay audits for companies (…), except for small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) to highlight the gender pay gap”; 2° To introduce sanctions that would exclude companies failing to meet their responsibilities with regard to gender equality from the public procurement of goods and services financed from the EU budget. The member states are called upon to take similar measures at national level.


• Social dimension of the eurozone: The Luxembourg Presidency of the EU on 5 October organised an informal meeting of ministers for employment and social affairs of eurozone countries in Luxembourg to exchange views on the value of such a meeting within the context of extending the governance of Economic and Monetary Union. The purpose was to discuss “the specific challenges facing Member States which share the same currency,” explained Nicolas Schmit, the Luxembourg minister of labour (see press release).

• Crisis in employers’ organisation for electricity sector: Two power producers owned by American companies have decided to quit the Bulgarian Confederation of Employers and Industrialists (CEIBG). Together with other private enterprises in the sector, they adopted a declaration accusing four employers’ organisations, including the CEIBG, of promoting a “roadmap” (in Bulgarian) for the energy sector that runs contrary to market principles and advocates nationalisation in order to protect national interests, thus jeopardising investments.

• No return to representation on supervisory boards: The government did not support a draft law aimed at restoring the compulsory representation of workers on supervisory boards of joint stock companies having more than 50 employees which had been abolished on 1 January 2014. The government took a neutral position on this proposal in the absence of an evaluation of the effects on the workers of the abolition of the previous legislation. As for the employers, they are opposed to representation being restored owing to negative experiences with employee representatives sitting on supervisory boards. The decision to examine this bill will now depend on the parliament.

Banking trade unions merge: The trade union federations of the banking sector FIBA-CISL and DIRCREDITO merged on 15 October to produce the sector’s biggest trade union organisation. FIRST-CISL (affiliated to the confederation CISL) will be able to negotiate on behalf of all categories of workers in the sector see press release).

• ArcelorMittal: The Kazakh and Ukrainian trade unions of the ArcelorMittal steelmaking group have asked the group’s chairman and CEO, Lakshmi Mittal, to allow their representatives to become part of ArcelorMittal’s European works council at least as observers. The initiative has the support of Jean-Luc Ruffin (CGT), secretary of the EWC (see IndustriAll press release.

• Airbus Group SE: A working party was set up on 25 September to consider ways of ensuring the involvement of employees from European countries not represented in the Airbus Group SE works council. At present, around ten countries in which Airbus SE employs people are not represented on the SE works council because the number of employees is below the threshold laid down in the agreement to secure a seat on the works council. The aim is to find a means of involving them in the works council’s activities.

• SKF: The world union council formed by IndustriAll Global Union within the Swedish group SKF (50,000 employees) met in Frankfurt (Germany) for its annual meeting from 29 September to 1 October to examine how the trade unions might “intensify their cooperation” (see press release).

Snapshot of European works councils: The European Trade Union Institute has published an extremely useful study (“European Works Councils and SE Works Councils in 2015“) that provides a snapshot of EWCs almost 20 years after the directive took effect. The study, which is illustrated by computer graphics, is indispensable for the players from a benchmarking perspective, as well as in connection with the ongoing evaluation exercise concerning directive 2009/38 that could lead to the text being revised.

• Evaluation report on EWC directive 2009/38: The Institute is also adding to the evaluation process with another, more erudite study («Variations on a theme ? The implementation of the EWC recast directive ») edited by Romuald Jagodzninski, with contributions from eminent academics (Jan Cremers, Filip Dorssemont, Sylvaine Laulom and Pascale Lorber). It delivers a critical appraisal of the transposition of directive 2009/38 and urges the European Commission to ensure that the directive is implemented properly.


• Social situation and collective bargaining in Greece: The Friedrich Ebert Foundation has published an excellent study on the collapse of collective bargaining in Greece following implementation of the recommendations made by the Troika: 19 industry-wide agreements covering occupational groups were signed in 2015, compared to 63 in 2011 and more than 150 each year from the beginning of the noughties; 70% of agreements concluded at company level between late 2011 and the end of 2013 were signed by non-trade union workers’ representatives. The author, Torsten Schulten, who outlines the current plans to restore a system of collective bargaining, shows that the outcome will depend largely on the balance of power between the creditors’ representatives and the International Labour Organisation, which is backing the Greek government. In the author’s opinion, there is more at stake than a purely national issue. For its part, the employment and social affairs committee of the European Parliament has discussed the assessment of the social impact of the new stability support programme for Greece (in English), which takes a rather positive view of the economic and social reforms envisaged by this programme. It concludes that the measures should set Greece back on the path of growth and financial stability, in a financially and socially sustainable way, provided that the burden of adjustment is distributed equitably.