EC offers unions greater say

The European Commission has stated that it wants to increase the involvement of unions and employers in drawing up and implementing EU policy. But it’s unclear whether this policy will produce concrete results.

The commitment was made at a “high-level” meeting of representatives of the two sides in Brussels on 5 March aimed, in the words of the Commission, at giving a “new impetus to social dialogue”. This is the discussions between unions and employers at European level which, in the 1990s, led to agreements and then EU-wide legislation on parental leave, fixed term contracts and part-time work.

Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker told the conference that “social dialogue is important” and that “everything should be done to revive it”.

However, Juncker specifically left it to unions and employers to come up with a programme of action, rather than setting out the Commission’s proposals for new employment legislation. This is something which was a necessary precondition for the progress that was made in the 1990s.

The Commission has, however, promised that unions and employers will be more involved in the recommendations it makes to national government on ways to improve their economic performance.

In the past, these “country-specific recommendations” have often contained proposals on pay and employment rights that unions have opposed. So earlier involvement may make it easier to remove or change them.

www.euractiv.com/sections/eu-priorities-2020/commission-seeks-revive-battered-social-dialogue-312678