IR Notes

Semester, an exercise that will lead next spring to the adoption of country-specific recommendations for each of the 28 member states in order to strengthen growth in the EU. The first stage is based on the adoption by the Commission of a series of communications providing an assessment of the budgetary, economic and social situation in the EU. The first of these is the Annual Growth Survey 2017, which “outlines the most pressing economic and social priorities on which the European Union and its Member States need to focus their attention in the coming months”. The document is accompanied by a specific recommendation on the economic policy for the euro area, a communication “on a positive fiscal stance for the euro area” and a thorough analysis of economic, labour market and social conditions (the “joint employment report“). As far as employment is concerned, the Commission insists in its communication on the annual growth survey on the need for greater labour market participation by developing a series of policies including improving the work-life balance, tackling discrimination and enhancing access to childcare services, housing and long-term care provision. The Commission also calls on the member states to put in place strategies to facilitate the integration of migrants and in particular of refugees in the labour market, stressing that, while the influx of these populations undeniably has “clear economic and fiscal impacts”, these are “neither unmanageable nor sizeable from a macroeconomic point of view”. The other priorities are to integrate young people and invest in training because “forecasts indicate a future shortage of people with vocational and training qualifications”. The Commission desires “effective social dialogue for a well-functioning social market economy”, which it says is “crucial”. But it calls upon the member states, “together with social partners” (…) to “make sure that their wage-setting systems are effective in delivering both job creation and real income increases, and for that adjust better to changes in productivity over time” – a recommendation that will once more be perceived as an interference in the social partners’ autonomy. Nevertheless, the European Trade Union Confederation welcomed Commissioner Thyssen’s call for wage-setting to generate real-income increases. “Wage rises are crucial in increasing internal demand. Without more money in workers’ pockets, Europe will be unable to achieve a sustainable recovery,” stresses the ETUC (see press release). In other respects, the data published in the joint employment report indicate that a certain number of indicators have returned to pre-2008-crisis levels, thus underlining the beginnings of an emergence from the crisis, even if growth remains weak and, as the Commission admits, fragile. It is therefore on the basis of these findings, which will now be discussed at national parliament level, and on which the social partners are being increasingly consulted, as underlined by a forthcoming study by the Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, that the Commission will elaborate its policies and formulate recommendations for the member states which will be confirmed by the Council next spring.

• Assistance from European adjustment fund: The European Commission on 8 November put forward a proposal to provide Spain with € 856,800 from the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund in order to help 250 former workers in the car industry find new jobs. They were made redundant by 29 businesses located in the Valencian Community because of a “significant loss of market share of the European automotive industry over the past decade” (see press release).


• Demonstration by European steel-workers: Around 15,000 demonstrators from all over Europe took to the streets of Brussels on 9 November in a march organised by the trade union movement in support of a stronger European steel policy that fights against unfair competition from steel imports from China or Russia (see IndustriAll press release).


• The future of work: The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the International Labour Organisation (ILO) engaged in a high-level dialogue on the future of work at a two-day conference that brought together more than 300 representatives of civil society and European social partners. The dialogue was intended to shed light on the principal motors of change which are transforming the economy and employment in Europe (see programme).

• Low implementation level of framework agreement on harassment and violence at work: The European Commission has made public a report aimed at evaluating the application of the framework agreement on harassment and violence at work adopted in 2007. The social partners have adopted legally binding instruments only in six countries. In total, 12 countries have not achieved the aim of implementing this agreement.
  > Also see the commentary of the European Trade Union Institute.

Access to training and discrimination on grounds of age: A Netherlands regulation provides for persons under the age of 30 to deduct the costs of vocational training in full from their taxable income. By contrast, the right to deduction is limited to an amount of € 15,000 for persons who have reached that age. After undertaking training as an airline pilot costing € 44,057, a 32-year-old Netherlands citizen had deducted that amount on his income tax and social security return. However, the tax authorities refused to grant the full deduction because of the man’s age and only deducted the flat-rate amount. Asked to rule on whether this regulation did not constitute discrimination on the grounds of age as prohibited by directive 2000/78 of 27 November 2000 (equal treatment), the Court of Justice of the European Union did not see any breach of the directive “in so far as, first, that scheme is objectively and reasonably justified by a legitimate objective” aimed at facilitating the integration of young people on the labour market, and “second, the means of attaining that objective are appropriate and necessary” (CJEU 10 November 2016, case C-548/15, de Lange).

• Recruitment by competition and discrimination on grounds of age: The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a ruling (CJEU 15 November 2016, case C-258/15, Sorondo) in a case concerning the age limit applicable to a competition for entry to the police force of the Basque Country in Spain. The European Court found that directive 2000/78 of 27 November 2000 (equal treatment) does not preclude a rule that sets at 35 the maximum recruitment age for police officers, in so far as this age limit is strictly necessary to re-establish an age structure that prevents the operational capacity and proper functioning of this particular police service from being put at risk. The court stated that, since the “difference of treatment based on age stemming from that legislation does not constitute discrimination (…) there is no need to examine whether it might be justified”.

• Reform of working hours takes effect: The decrees concerning the reform of working hours have appeared in the Official Journal on 19 November to allow the new provisions envisaged by the “work law” to become applicable on 1 January 2017. Decrees Nos. 2016-1553 and 2016-1551 dated 18 November notably implement article 8 of the law which restructures the legislation around working hours on three levels: the first defines the compulsory public order provisions that apply to the employment relationship; the second outlines the scope allowed for industry- or company-level collective bargaining, while the third stipulates the supplementary provisions that apply in the absence of a collective agreement. The principle, contested by some trade unions, is to grant precedence to company-level agreements – concluded between the employer and one or more representative trade unions that have accumulated a majority of employees’ votes in workplace elections – over industry-level agreements with regard to most of the provisions relating to working hours. It will now be possible for a company-level agreement to provide for salary enhancements for overtime to be reduced to 10% (the legal minimum), even if an industry-level agreement exists that sets the rate at 25%.

• Minimum wage to go up: The government on 26 October adopted an ordinance to increase the minimum wage from € 8.50 to € 8.84 per hour from 1 January 2017 (see press release).

• Thales: The management of the group on 17 November presented before its European works council a plan to sell its public transport ticketing and fare collection business, as well as its motorway toll and car park management activities which employ 850 people, 370 of them in France. Inside the EU the plan will also affect the workforces employed in Denmark, Italy and the Netherlands.

ThyssenKrupp: During the “Works Council Day” organised each year by the German labour ministry and trade unions, the global framework agreement signed in 2015 by ThyssenKrupp between the management, works council and international trade union federation IndustriAll received an award (see IndustriAll press release). The GFA received the silver medal in a competition intended to reward the best initiatives taken by company works councils. The award in particular recognises the online system for reporting violations of fundamental social rights and provisions of the agreement (see IndustriAll press release).

• Scor: The French reinsurance group Scor (2,581 employees) has signed a global charter on professional equality between women and men which extends the commitments of the European Charter signed in 2015 with the joint works council of the group’s European companies (see press release of the Scor group). Unlike the European charter, the new text does not contain a box stating the objectives to be achieved.

• Caterpillar: All the European trade unions affiliated to the European trade union federation IndustriAll staged a demonstration on 18 November outside the European headquarters of the Caterpillar group in Geneva (Switzerland) to demand an end to restructuring, a genuine social dialogue “with Caterpillar’s decision-makers”, and consideration of alternative proposals for sustainable economic development (see IndustriAll press release).


• McDonald’s: Representatives of the Belgian (ABVV Horval), British (BFAWU) and French (CGT) trade unions will be heard on 29 November by the European Parliament’s Petition Committee. They will outline to MEPs the working conditions imposed by McDonald’s on its workforce. The trade unions have launched an online petition, calling on the group to end the use of zero hours contracts in Great Britain and loopholes in the legislation on part-time working in Belgium, and to stop blocking the creation of works councils in France.

Longer working lives: The expected duration of working life in the European Union stood at 35.4 years on average in 2015, up by 1.9 years compared with 2005, according to a study by Eurostat. In detail, over this 10-year period the duration of working life has increased more rapidly for women (32.8 years in 2015 compared with 30.2 years in 2005, or +2.6 years) than for men (37.9 years in 2015 compared to 36.7 years in 2005, or +1.2 year).

• Pensions at a glance: The French pensions advisory council (Conseil d’orientation des retraites) has published an overview of French and foreign retirement systems. The document, in French, is divided into topic and country fact-sheets.


• Child poverty in the EU: In 2015, around 25 million children in the EU, that is to say 26.9% of the population aged from 0 to 17, were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to a study by Eurostat. Since 2010, the proportion of children affected has slightly decreased, from 27.5% in 2010 to 26.9% in 2015, although certain countries have experienced sharp increases, notably Greece (from 28.7% in 2010 to 37.8% in 2015, that is a rise of +9.1 percentage points) and Cyprus (+7.1 points to 28.9%).