Consultation sur le droit du travail : la grogne des partenaires sociaux

UNICE, the European employers' association, said: "Flexibility in the labour market is the only way to create more jobs in the European Union. The Green Paper issued by the Commission does not sufficiently underline that self-employment is key for the development of the entrepreneurial mindset we so badly miss in Europe." UNICE President Ernest-Antoine Seillière added: "Efforts have been made to make the Green Paper more balanced.  However, the text is still too focused on how to preserve existing employment instead of looking for ways to facilitate the creation of more new jobs through increased labour market flexibility." UNICE announced that it "will be happy to participate actively in the debate".

CEEP, representing European enterprises with public participation and enterprises of general economic interest, said that the Green Paper was asking "the right questions to the wrong actors". It went on to say that "the questions the Commission asks in the text published on 23 November go in the right direction. They indeed try to address important issues such as the one of costs vs benefits. Namely, what would be the costs of greater regulation of non-standard employment relationships through legislation or collective bargaining in terms of competitiveness, productivity and job creation vs the benefits it would create for employees (but possibly also employers)? However, we restate, as often done during the drafting process of that long-awaited text, that the instrument and procedures used to launch those questions are not appropriate. Of course, a developed framework of flexicurity requires intervention from different actors including the state (active labour market policy, labour regulation), and social protection and education and training providers. But 80% of the questions addressed in the green paper are in the direct remit of the social partners, which should therefore have been properly and separately consulted."  

ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation, criticised that "the Green Paper addresses only part of the issues that need to be addressed". ETUC signaled that during the four-month consultation started on 23 November 2006, it will make "proposals on working time, temporary agency work, European Works Councils (EWC), information and consultation, and restructuring". ETUC linked the consultation to the thousands of redundancies announced by Volkswagen as a result of restructuring the German carmaker's factory in the Belgian capital and said that "the debacle at Volkswagen's Brussels plant shows that protection for workers is inadequate. Yet in recent years in many member states, labour-law reforms have been introduced in the framework of a competitiveness agenda that have promoted two tier labour markets rather than exert more influence on company decisions on employment security." ETUC urged that "all relevant stakeholders" at EU level "engage in an urgent debate on how to adapt labour law and social policy to fit the modern world of work while providing for fair and decent working conditions and labour standards to all workers on EU territory, and protect workers against overexposure to the whims of the market".

The Social Platform, which represents social NGOs across Europe, criticised the Commission’s road map towards the adoption of common principles on flexicurity in 2007, because "the only open consultation that is presently taking place is on labour law, neglecting many other facets of flexicurity such as the need for solid social infrastructures, public support, supportive activation policies, minimum income or investment in life-long learning. However, the Social Platform welcomed what it called a "timely consultation on labour law to address gaps in protection of workers and the issue of European social standards." It called for the consultation "to mark the opening of a structured debate on the impact of social dumping in the EU". Social Platform President Anne-Sophie Parent said: "All citizens across Europe are concerned by the way member states are competing among themselves to attract investment by reducing taxes or putting pressure on workers’ rights. If the EU does not act on that it will never regain the confidence of people."