Social Dialogue
“Reform partnership” with added value for companies
For employers, the European social dialogue is an effective instrument for influencing and actively helping to shape European social policy for the benefit of companies. The flexicurity concept is an example.
In recent years the social dialogue has developed into a practice-oriented and targeted instrument of European social policy. It can make a considerable contribution to integration in the EU. This is because, completely along the lines of a “reform partnership”, the social dialogue leads to concrete results which add value for companies at plant level instead of subjecting them to additional restrictive regulation and bureaucracy.
The social policy agenda at EU level has been successfully shaped with the “Key challenges facing European labour markets: a joint analysis of European social partners” published in November 2007. With this document, the European social partners support the flexicurity concept as the basis for a forward-looking social and labour market policy. According to the joint analysis by trade unions and employers, the spotlight must also be trained on labour legislation. Moreover, the importance of geographical and professional mobility for growth and jobs is underlined, another point underlying the call for greater flexibility. This joint analysis is the foundation for future activities with the trade unions at European level. The work programme of the social dialogue 2009-2010 is currently being negotiated and is strongly aligned on the employment policy orientation of this document.
Shape EU rules in a business-friendly way
The European social dialogue comprises several possibilities for shaping EU regulation. Employers have on several occasions had recourse to the possibility offered by European social dialogue based on article 139 of the EC treaty whereby employers negotiate rules jointly with the trade unions in areas where the European Commission has legislative plans. In this way, the European social partner organisations BUSINESSEUROPE, CEEP and ETUC have negotiated the content of directives on parental leave, part-time work and foxed-term contracts in the form of autonomous framework agreements.
At the present time, the work-life balance is on the agenda. After the European Commission launched its second-stage consultation of the social partners in May last year, BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP came out in favour of negotiations following an evaluation phase to take stock of the situation. The goal of the negotiations is to modernise and inject flexibility into the framework conditions for parental leave and at the same time to take account of the needs of businesses.
The outcome is that these directives whose content is determined by the social partners are formulated in a way that is very much more employment- and business-friendly than if the Commission and the European Parliament had taken the reins.
Open the way for practical business solutions
A further possibility for shaping European social policy is offered by “voluntary framework agreements” of the European social partners which are voluntarily transposed by national employer and trade union organisations, in line with traditions in their own countries. In the voluntary framework agreements on tele-working, on stress at work and on harassment and violence at work, companies identified approaches to enable companies to deal with these issues in a practical manner tailored to their individual situation, in order simultaneously to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and costs. In this context, there were no binding procedures for national implementation: national social partners are expected to follow their own national, sectoral and company-level traditions and circumstances.
Learning from each other in a process of exchanging “good practice” and hence contributing with minimum bureaucracy to a practical shaping of the social dimension of the EU, the European social partners have developed the instrument known as the “voluntary action framework”. On the basis of practical business examples submitted jointly by employer and worker representatives, both problems and constructive and where possible innovative solutions and priorities for action are identified.
The social policy agenda at EU level has been successfully shaped with the “Key challenges facing European labour markets: a joint analysis of European social partners” published in November 2007. With this document, the European social partners support the flexicurity concept as the basis for a forward-looking social and labour market policy. According to the joint analysis by trade unions and employers, the spotlight must also be trained on labour legislation. Moreover, the importance of geographical and professional mobility for growth and jobs is underlined, another point underlying the call for greater flexibility. This joint analysis is the foundation for future activities with the trade unions at European level. The work programme of the social dialogue 2009-2010 is currently being negotiated and is strongly aligned on the employment policy orientation of this document.
Shape EU rules in a business-friendly way
The European social dialogue comprises several possibilities for shaping EU regulation. Employers have on several occasions had recourse to the possibility offered by European social dialogue based on article 139 of the EC treaty whereby employers negotiate rules jointly with the trade unions in areas where the European Commission has legislative plans. In this way, the European social partner organisations BUSINESSEUROPE, CEEP and ETUC have negotiated the content of directives on parental leave, part-time work and foxed-term contracts in the form of autonomous framework agreements.
At the present time, the work-life balance is on the agenda. After the European Commission launched its second-stage consultation of the social partners in May last year, BUSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP came out in favour of negotiations following an evaluation phase to take stock of the situation. The goal of the negotiations is to modernise and inject flexibility into the framework conditions for parental leave and at the same time to take account of the needs of businesses.
The outcome is that these directives whose content is determined by the social partners are formulated in a way that is very much more employment- and business-friendly than if the Commission and the European Parliament had taken the reins.
Open the way for practical business solutions
A further possibility for shaping European social policy is offered by “voluntary framework agreements” of the European social partners which are voluntarily transposed by national employer and trade union organisations, in line with traditions in their own countries. In the voluntary framework agreements on tele-working, on stress at work and on harassment and violence at work, companies identified approaches to enable companies to deal with these issues in a practical manner tailored to their individual situation, in order simultaneously to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy and costs. In this context, there were no binding procedures for national implementation: national social partners are expected to follow their own national, sectoral and company-level traditions and circumstances.
Learning from each other in a process of exchanging “good practice” and hence contributing with minimum bureaucracy to a practical shaping of the social dimension of the EU, the European social partners have developed the instrument known as the “voluntary action framework”. On the basis of practical business examples submitted jointly by employer and worker representatives, both problems and constructive and where possible innovative solutions and priorities for action are identified.
