EU employers’ organisations and trade unions agree on a work programme 2015-2017 and joint In-depth EU employment analysis

The EU social partners’ fifth autonomous work programme, a “Partnership for Inclusive Growth and Employment”, sets the course for EU social partners’ joint actions for 2015-2017. EU social partners also agreed on a joint in-depth employment analysis of the functioning of European labour markets.

Eight years after their first joint labour market analysis, EU social partners provide key recommendations to address challenges stemming from the crisis and structural issues. Those recommendations include the potential of social dialogue to deliver growth and employment, the need to address Europe’s weakness in terms of job creation, the need to foster productivity and the importance of fighting inequalities and poverty.

Presenting together a common analysis and an autonomous work programme reflects the responsibility of EU social partners to overcome the challenges brought forward by the crisis, by creating more and better jobs, increasing EU competitiveness and restoring investments and growth.

EU social partners therefore agreed to:

• negotiate an autonomous framework agreement on active ageing and an inter-generational approach;
• step up efforts to improve the implementation of their autonomous framework agreements, with a specific focus on the 8-10 Member States where the implementation has been identified as insufficient;
• highlight the importance of more public and private investments, in order to reach an optimal growth, to boost job creation and to revive EU industrial base;
• prepare joint conclusions promoting better reconciliation of work, private and family life and gender equality to reduce the gender pay gap;
• improve skills development to meet needs of digital economies, as well as effective active labour market policies to address skills mismatches, facilitate transitions from unemployment to employment and to more and better jobs;
• contribute to the efforts of the EU institutions to develop a mobility package, to address loopholes and enforcement issues on worker mobility and to promote mobility of apprenticeships.

Both documents are available here: a “Partnership for Inclusive Growth and Employment” / Joint in-depth Employment Analysis.

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