Social partners wrestle over 'flexicurity' definition[fr][de] 

In spite of fundamental differences on how to define 'flexicurity', European Social Partners, meeting on 8-9 March in Brussels, engaged in the exercise of including the issue in their joint position on challenges to European labour markets that they are drafting as part of their 2006-2008 work programme . 

Drafting began late in 2006 and is, as of March 2007, at a stage where employers' and workers' representatives are discussing details. The joint paper is likely to be published in April. 

Independently of the drafting process, however, differences persist between trade unions and employers on the challenges and on how to address them. At the 8 March 2007 Tripartite Social Summit, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) called for: 

• An end to the growth of 'precarious' jobs, which are bad not only for workers but also for the labour market and economy. They undermine working conditions, health and safety, generate poverty wages and damage social cohesion. Member states must commit themselves to creating secure, good- quality work;
• better work organisation, to create flexible, participatory working environments that allow for a balance between work and home life and offer lifelong learning opportunities to boost workers' skills;
• no cuts in employment protection legislation, which, far from being an obstacle to a dynamic labour market, can favour investment in human capital and innovation;
• improved social-welfare systems, providing greater security to the 14 million European workers who change jobs each year, and; 
• social dialogue and collective bargaining to give workers a strong voice in labour market reform. The full involvement of the social partners is crucial to successfully defining flexicurity.

Georg Toifl, president of the small-and medium-sized company organisation UEAPME, "invited member states to consider new instruments to bring the low-qualified workforce back into active employment". Concretely, he asked for:

• The introduction of combined salaries, by which employees receive part of their salaries in form of tax credits, vouchers or social payments;
• the revision of national taxation and social protection systems "to make work pay", and; 
• reduction of onerous taxes and "excessive non-wage labour costs".

BusinessEurope President Ernest-Antoine Seillière, addressing the Tripartite Social Summit, said: "There is no one-size-fits-all model of flexicurity to be implemented across the EU. Decisions on concrete measures can only be taken in the member states but the EU can play a useful role by identifying common principles and pathways in order to facilitate discussions and policy developments at the national level." 

Caspar Einem and Rainer Plaßmann, president and secretary-general, respectively, of CEEP, the organisation representing enterprises with public participation and enterprises of general economic interest, addressed a letter to the Spring Council . They wrote: "Unfortunately, too few National Reform Programmes (NRPs) have taken a systematic flexicurity approach on board. We hope that both the European Social Dialogue and the elaboration of flexicurity pathways will have a positive impact on next year NRPs. The primary effect of that impact should than be an increased attention to the policy priority of improving adaptability of workers, enterprises and services."