The world of labor is altering. The inexperienced and digital transitions pose new challenges for employers and staff, and people fast-paced shifts are hitting policymakers, who’re making an attempt to maintain up with new guidelines and tips for EU member states to make job alternatives and ability units match for goal.
A residing minimal wage, and new pay transparency guidelines to deal with gender discrimination, have been a few of the most talked-about recordsdata of this present parliament (2019-2024). Some others, nevertheless, are liable to shedding political momentum because the run-up to the June 2024 elections is quick approaching, and the clock for closing recordsdata is ticking.
EUobserver talked to Dutch MEP Agnes Jongerius, Socialists & Democrats (S&D) spokesperson for employment, to take a look at previous and future challenges of the Parliament’s work from the social and labour views.
This is the overview forward of the 2024 EU elections.
From the employment perspective, what have been the best successes over this mandate?
Agnes Jongerius: I believe if you happen to look again on the first speech of Ursula von der Leyen, when she needed to change into the EU Fee’s president, you possibly can see numerous our election manifesto and of the marketing campaign of Frans Timmermans. She was speaking about equal pay for women and men. She promised within the speech that within the first 100 days, the proposal round transparency could be on the desk. It took a bit longer. But it surely’s completed, and now it is as much as the member states to transpose it to nationwide laws.
Von der Leyen talked about ladies, that they need to even be represented at board stage, and that she would personally attempt to unblock the directive. That was additionally one of many calls for of our political household, and he or she constructed her speech round that.
She additionally talked about the truth that too many staff within the European Union had issues paying their payments on the finish of the month. She was speaking about in-work poverty, a phenomenon that we knew, in fact, from the US. Frans had additionally been campaigning round that, and it led to the minimal wage directive.
Von der Leyen additionally talked about the truth that too many staff are unprotected, like the employees of the Huge Tech platforms. So if you happen to take a look at the speech, and also you see loads of similarities with our election manifesto and Timmermans’ marketing campaign, I believe you possibly can say that we had been energetic and pushing.
And probably the most complicated legislative recordsdata?
The minimal wage was fairly troublesome. There have been lots of people who mentioned: “This isn’t a European competence, you shouldn’t be concerned on this”. On the time, the employers’ organisations threw loads of authorized opinions on the desk, so it was additionally, as an example, a battle of authorized opinions. Though in the long run we had been in a position to have a reasonably bold directive on minimal wages and the way member states ought to assess their adequacy. I am fairly pleased with that.
Once we speak about future challenges, if you wish to have a correct authorized textual content earlier than the elections, the vote must be within the first week of February. It may be later, however then you definately’ll should vote on a preliminary textual content, then the authorized scrubbing will happen over the summer season months, after which the brand new parliament should vote on a ‘corrigendum’. So now we have 4 months, roughly, to get loads of laws performed.
And I believe that the platform directive is probably the most difficult one. Additionally, as a result of the parliament and Council have fairly completely different level of views, and there’s a large quantity of lobbying happening. Final week within the employment committee, Dragos Pislaru [Renew Europe], the chair of the committee, mentioned that if solely the platforms would use the cash they’re now utilizing to promote and foyer to correct pay their staff, that might actually make a distinction.
However, I believe it is also difficult and vital to succeed in an settlement as a result of now we are able to see how many individuals are working for Uber, or how many individuals are working for Bolt, however how large is that this group of individuals?
If folks in probably the most susceptible elements of the labour market see their managers saying you do not work for me, you get your service by means of an IT platform, for instance within the retail sector, and individuals are provided to work in a store for a particular day and a particular time frame, and that is sufficient for an employer to not deal with them as a employee and to not supply them social safety, a collective settlement and so forth. Then within the cleansing sector, within the elderly-care sector, they may all say let’s use an app. If that’s sufficient for folks to lose their fundamental staff’ rights, then we actually have a really large downside within the labour market. So it is vital that we’re in a position to end this file.
Is there any vital piece of laws that might lose political momentum if not handed earlier than the EU elections? Aside from the platform staff directive.
Join EUobserver’s every day publication
All of the tales we publish, despatched at 7.30 AM.
By signing up, you comply with our Phrases of Use and Privateness Coverage.
Final mandate, we weren’t in a position to end the [modernisation of the] coordination of social safety techniques. Simply earlier than the [2019] elections, we had the parliament’s place, trilogues had already began, after which in the long run I believe the council did not agree with the proposal from the trilogues. Since then, my colleague Gabriele Bischoff have talked to each presidency to restart conversations, and end this file.
I have to say I actually admire her as a result of she nonetheless hasn’t given up. So it will be effort upset if it wasn’t completed earlier than this mandate, though it is sophisticated.
And I do not know whether or not we’re shedding momentum or not, however from an employment standpoint, now we have a pores and skin within the sport of financial governance. As a result of the scope for social coverage, the scope for social funding, the scope for making the European Pillar of Social Rights a actuality can also be outlined by how strict the foundations are for governments from the proposal of financial governance.
Within the work programme for 2024, the fee promised a revision of the European Works Council, and in a earlier work programme additionally they introduced the standard traineeships. And so they will not be completed on this mandate, though I believe it is vital to place them on the desk and to start out engaged on them.
As for the incapacity card, I don’t suppose we have to lose any political momentum. We’re planning to finalise it maybe even in the course of the Spanish presidency (to December 2023), however in any other case on the newest in the course of the Belgian presidency (from January 2024).
And taking a look into the longer term, what must be performed within the subsequent parliamentary cycle?
There may be an overflow from this mandate to the subsequent. As I mentioned, the European Works Council file is not going to be completed. High quality traineeships is not going to be completed. And I hope that financial governance and the Platform Staff directive might be completed.
Nonetheless, after I take a look at the subsequent mandate, AI at work is certainly a problem that I hope we are able to handle. I do not suppose we have seen something but, so we actually want to make use of all of the clear heads round this subject to see what’s coming.
I additionally hope that we’ll proceed to push for, as an example, the work across the European Pillar of Social Rights — for instance on minimal revenue and poverty, as a result of there’s a goal round poverty that’s not but inside attain.
At the very least I might argue that we also needs to tackle board Pillar 20, which is about accessible public companies, particularly as now we have seen that in too many Member States reasonably priced housing is a very large downside, particularly for younger folks. I purchased my first home 30 years in the past, so no person ought to really feel sorry for me. But when it’s a must to get on the housing market now, it is vitally troublesome. Reasonably priced housing might be a part of our marketing campaign and we should always see how we are able to use European insurance policies for reasonably priced housing.
Aside from that, I believe one other vital subject might be how we are able to use public cash to push for respectable and sustainable jobs. For instance, how can we modify the general public procurement directive to assist these international locations that need to allocate public cash to good and sustainable jobs?
There may be a lot cash floating round. If you happen to actually use these conditionalities, you possibly can push for it.