Tag: labour reform

Eurozone unemployment jumped to an 11-year high in November and is likely to rise further this year, adding to the instability of an economic recovery now based on fickle inventory rebuilding and exports.

Squeezed by the economic crisis, Europe's labour markets can find new dynamism through social innovation, said Vladimir Špidla, EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and equal opportunities, in an exclusive interview with EurActiv.

Although European labour markets continued to recover in 2007, employment rates across Europe are still a long way short of the targets the EU set itself via the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs in 2000. Workers aged over 55 continue to face the greatest difficulties, new data reveals.

Employers' and trade unions are set to agree a compromise over the modernisation of the labour market in France, paving the way towards a distinctive 'French approach' to the Danish 'flexicurity' model. EurActiv France reports.  

European social partners have agreed upon the key principles to guide "flexicurity" labour market reforms in member states at a key meeting with EU leaders in Lisbon, bringing an end to months of bickering.

While employers' organisations are mostly positive about the Commission's suggestions on labour-law adaptation (flexicurity), some trade unions doubt claims that levels of social protection will be maintained.

The Commission is about to finalise its Communication on 'flexicurity', the Nordic reform model that, according to some, may solve Europe's unemployment problem. At the same time, social partners are at odds with each other on the core lesson to be learned from Denmark, Finland and Sweden - EurActiv put the question to three experts from the EU's employer associations and trade unions. 

The European Trade Union Confederation - ETUC - has strongly criticised the Parliament's draft report on the Commission's Green Paper 'Modernising labour law to meet the challenges of the 21^st century', declaring that it requires 'fundamental change'. In a position paper published on May 7, it states that Parliament offers a 'flawed' and 'over-simplified' analysis of the EU's labour-market problems.

Eurozone governments should use Europe's economic upswing to hasten the pace of economic reforms, says a new survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The final version of the Commission's Green Paper on labour law, to be presented by Commissioner Spidla on 22 November 2006, has a new title and most of its original questions up for consultation have been changed.

Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, PES president and former Prime Minister of Denmark, presented the hypothesis behind a project complementing the Lisbon agenda.

Shortly before the Commission's planned launch of a consultation on the reform of European labour law, employers' association UNICE launched a fierce attack on the document. EurActiv talked to Catelene Passchier, who is in charge of social policy and labour law in her position as confederal secretary of ETUC, the European Trade Union Confederation.

According to a new survey conducted by Financial Times and Harris Poll, EU workers are in favour of more flexible working and retirement arrangements, but also expect to be paid accordingly.

Denmark, the champion of the EU's Lisbon Agenda on Jobs and Growth, will increase the retirement age by two years in order to bring more people into jobs and finance social security systems.

French Prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced in a public address on the morning of 10 April 2006 the withdrawal of the contrat première embauche (CPE).

Millions of workers went on strike, on 28 and 29 March 2006, in France, Germany and the UK to protest against labour reforms that the countries' respective governments deem necessary to create jobs and growth.

The 2006 'Going for Growth' report of the OECD indicates that EU countries need to do more to increase the number of people in the workforce. Government actions in that area, however, are being contested in the streets in France and Germany.

Member states that have invested in active labour market policies have increased employment rates despite Europe's slow growth, says the Commission's Employment Report for 2005.

The model of flexicurity - a combination of easy hiring and firing, high benefits for the unemployed and a pro-active labour market policy - could solve many of Europe's unemployment problems, experts at a conference agreed.

The UK Presidency has announced the venue for the informal summit in which EU leaders will debate the sustainability of the European social model.

Commonly, Britain's relatively positive employment situation is attributed to a far-reaching deregulation of the private sector. Wrongly so, argue British economists. Seemingly outdated Keynesianism is what led to the British job miracle.