By Anne-France White - 23rd November 2006
EU employers are worried that a new policy paper could create more cumbersome workplace legislation.
The paper, tabled yesterday by EU employment commissioner Vladimír Špidla, is intended to spark a debate on how the EU can develop a flexible labour market while protecting workers.
The consultation will feed into new commission proposals due out in June 2007.
Among the issues raised, the paper asks whether there is a need for a “floor of rights dealing with the working conditions of all workers regardless of their form of contract”.
Spidla notes that shorter-term and non-permanent contracts “are vital to confronting the effects of globalisation and demographic ageing in our labour markets”.
But he argues that “it is essential that workers do not lose out in this process and that their call for greater security is heard”.
The policy paper has sparked fear among the EU’s employers, who say it could mark a new attempt to regulate the labour market.
Dieter Hundt, head of Germany’s employers union, said the EU’s approach was “in blatant contradiction with the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs that has been agreed by the council and commission”.
Employers are especially worried that the move could mark a new attempt to regulate areas like agency working.
But the paper was applauded by the socialists MEPs who “welcomed the chance to discuss new basic employment rights”.
SME union UEAPME also welcomed the paper, saying it “is now based on a reasonable approach towards employment issues in Europe, for instance as far as hybrid and new forms of work are concerned”.
“The wording on self-employment … is now much more positive and recognises the importance of encouraging entrepreneurship in Europe,” said UAPME director Liliane Volozinskis.
The divisive issue of employment rights is expected to come to centre-stage next year, as the commission makes improving the EU’s labour markets one of its top priorities.
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