10 December 2021
On Thursday 9 December 2021, the European Commission jointly presented its proposal for a directive on improving working conditions in platform work and its action plan for the social economy, “Building an economy that works for people”.
The proposal for a directive on improving the working conditions of people working through digital labour platforms clearly states that platforms would be considered as employers if they determine a worker’s level of remuneration; require them to respect rules concerning appearance; supervise the performance via electronic means; restrict the freedom to choose working hours; and restrict the possibility for the platform worker to perform work for others. According to the draft, if any two of these criteria are fulfilled, an employer-employee would be established. The Commission’s initiative is just a first step, and now both Parliament and Council will prepare their respective positions before entering into negotiations. EU Member States would have two years to adopt the legislation nationally.
Whilst fully supporting the ambition to create a level playing field regarding platform work, SGI Europe calls for respecting national traditions regarding labour and industrial relations and leaving enough margin of manoeuvre to the Member States and national social partners. As presented today, the proposal for a directive on platform work puts forward a one-size-fits-all approach. SGI Europe is particularly concerned about the proposal for a rebuttable presumption of employment.
The Commission also unveiled its communication for a social economy action plan which aims to increase the recognition of the social economy and its potential by making it more visible through research, evidence gathering and communication activities. SGI Europe warmly welcomes the communication, which provides tools to improve the visibility and recognition, financial capacities, skill development opportunities, social innovation and knowledge for social economy actors. SGI Europe stands ready to contribute with its members to the upcoming announced initiatives and empowers social economy actors to play an even greater role in reshaping the EU post-crisis economy and society.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On Monday 6 December, the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) reached a general approach both on the draft EU law on minimum wages and on the proposed directive on pay transparency.
On the Commission proposal for an EU law on adequate minimum wages in the EU, a central element of the general approach of the European Council highlights the need for Member States to promote strengthening the capacity of social partners to engage in collective bargaining, as countries with high collective bargaining coverage tend to have a smaller share of low-wage workers and higher minimum wages. This general approach provides the Council presidency with a mandate for negotiations with the European Parliament (who agreed on its position in late November).
On the draft law on pay transparency, the proposed law aims to empower workers to enforce their right to equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through a set of binding measures on pay transparency. Once the European Parliament has adopted its final position, the Council and the EP will negotiate a common text.
Contact: Guillaume Afellat
On 9 December 2021, the European Council cleared the EU Taxonomy Regulation Climate Delegated Act, which lays the foundations for creating a sustainable finance framework in the EU and clears the way for the entry into force of the Taxonomy on 1 January 2022. More on SGI Europe comments in our press release.
Contact: Henriette Gleau
On Wednesday 8 December 2021, SGI Europe responded to the public consultation on General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). The revision was a tailored one, aligning four sections of GBER with their respective Guidelines. These sections were regional aid (aligning with the Regional Aid Guidelines), Risk finance aid (aligning with the Risk Finance Guidelines), Research and Development and Innovation (“R&D&I”) aid (aligning with the Research, Development and Innovation Framework) and Environmental and Energy aid (aligning with the Energy and Environmental Guidelines).
SGI Europe provided feedback on environmental and energy aid, welcoming the support for the development of renewable energy and its infrastructure, the ramp-up of hydrogen and support of decarbonisation of heat supply. In addition to that, we suggested some improvements, such as inclusion of tariffs as eligible costs for construction of refueling and recharging infrastructure, changing the requirement of necessity of aid for recharging infrastructure, changes in requirements of incentive effect, widening the scope of aid measures to be exempted from the notification obligation for projects with installed capacity of less than 1 MW (we suggest 3 MW). Furthermore, we expressed concerns regarding the uncertainty of the inclusion of low carbon hydrogen in the investment aid for the promotion of energy from renewable sources.
Since the GBER is a Commission Regulation, the revision process will continue with the adoption of revised text expected after 2nd Advisory Committee of the Member States in May/June 2022. As GBER expires on 31 December 2023, the Commission will launch an overall revision in the beginning of next year.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
On 10 December, in the context of the initiatives announced in the European Skills Agenda, the European Commission published two proposals for Council Recommendations on Individual Learning Accounts (ILAs) and Micro-credentials, aiming to create a new framework for supporting the upskilling and reskilling of working age adults across the EU.
Although the European Commission rightly identifies in its Individual Learning Accounts proposal the need to increase the share of adults taking part in training activities, SGI Europe fears that the proposal does not fully take into account the need to tailor the conditions for access and entitlement to training to different national contexts and realities, through an appropriate mix of arrangements and tools, including training funds.
SGI Europe expressed its views on the Individual Learning Accounts together with the other cross-industry European Social Partners through the tripartite opinion adopted in the Advisory Committee on Vocational Training (ACVT) on 16 August 2021, calling on the European Commission to avoid a ‘’one-size fits all’’ approach.
SGI Europe welcomes the focus of the Micro-credentials proposal on minimum standards for quality assurance and transferability, allowing comparative analysis and transparency, and underpinning their important role in tackling skills shortages.
Contact: Stefan Enica
The Commission published a draft revised Guidelines for State Aid for Broadband Networks, which is now open to provide feedback until 11 February 2022.
The current Broadband Guidelines were adopted in 2013 and evaluated this year (Staff Working Document was published in July). On the basis of the evaluation, the revision process was launched with a publishing of the roadmap, to which SGI Europe responded on 16 September 2021.
The revision aims at aligning the intervention threshold for public support to Gigabit fixed networks with current and expected technological and market developments, providing guidance on support for the deployment of mobile networks, introducing new category of possible aid in the form of demand-side measures supporting the take-up of fixed and mobile networks (vouchers), adjusting wholesale access obligations to reflect technological progress, amongst others.
The Guidelines for State aid for broadband networks are one of the most important sectoral guidelines for SGI Europe. Therefore, we will make efforts to provide the Commission with meaningful feedback to facilitate broadband deployment.
Contact: Manca Pocivavsek
The webinar is the fourth of a series of events as part of a joint project with HOSPEEM, EPSU, CEMR, CESI, ETUCE, EUPAE, ETF, UITP, and ETNO on the role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work. It will take place on Thursday, 16 December 2021 – 10:00-12:30 CET. The webinar aims will explore the connections between digitalisation and third-party violence and harassment and aims to answer questions, including: Does digitalisation or the way it is implemented increase or decrease the risks of TPV - and - how widespread is cyberviolence/harassment/bullying at work? Speakers include representatives from EU-OSHA, and Leuven University. Interpretation will be provided to and from English, French, Italian, Hungarian and Spanish.
Register here.
Contact: Simone Mohrs, Policy Officer (HOSPEEM)
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