Activities of Rosa D'AMATO related to 2023/2536(RSP)
Plenary speeches (1)
Strengthening social dialogue (debate)
Amendments (29)
Amendment 31 #
Recital B
B. whereas collective bargaining at the sectoral and cross-industry levels came under pressure in some Member States in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis following the introduction of austerity measures and de-regulation of labour market institutions; whereas the share of workers covered by collective agreements has declined significantly over the past 30 years, with an estimated drop in EU average coverage from about 66 % in 2000 to about 56 % in 201811, owing to labour market reformsderegulationin many Member States that decentralised collective bargaining systems, removed employment protection leading tothe rise of precarious forms of employment and bogus self- employment; whereas in most Member States, collective bargaining covering rates tend to be higher for employees on permanent contracts and for those working in larger companies; _________________ 11 Visser, Jelle, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies, ‘Database on Institutional Characteristics of Trade Unions, Wage Setting, State Intervention and Social Pacts’, Version 6.1, November 2019.
Amendment 39 #
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas workers under the age of 30 are only half as likely to join a trade union compared to older workers1a, while at the same time being very supportive of collective bargaining and having a high degree of trust in trade unions; _________________ 1a ESDE 2022 Annual Review
Amendment 44 #
Recital C
C. whereas European workers and employers are currently facing major challenges stemming from the consequences of the pandemic and, since 24 February 2022, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the high cost of living and profit-driven inflation; whereas these events have shown a pressing need for broader and stronger participation by social partners, especially if the green and digital transitions to a sustainable, fair and social future for the EU are to be achieved; whereas workers or their representatives have the right to be informed and consulted in good time on matters relevant to them, in particular on the transfer, restructuring and merger of undertakings and on collective redundancies;
Amendment 49 #
Recital D
D. whereas democracy at work plays a key role in strengthening human rights in the workplace and society, in particular when workers’ representatives, including trade unions, are actively involved in bsusinesstainable due diligence processes; whereas sustainable corporate governance can only be achieved with employethe involvement of workers and civil society; whereas workers’ voices are a key component of EU initiatives to ensure sustainable and democratic corporate governance and due diligence on human rights, including with regard to labour, and on climate change and the environment, as well as EU initiatives to reduce the use of unfair practices, such as labour exploitation and unfair competition in the single market;
Amendment 56 #
Recital E
E. whereas Principle 8 of the European Pillar of Social Rights states that social partners should be consulted on the design and implementation of economic, employment and social policies, according to national practices; whereas social partners are also encouraged to negotiate and conclude collective agreements on matters relevant to them, while safeguarding their autonomy and the right to collective action; whereas the Porto Social Commitment called on all relevant actors to promote autonomous social dialogue as a structuring component of the European social model and to strengthen it at the European, national, regional, local, sectoral and company levels, with particular emphasis on ensuring an enabling framework for collective bargaining within the various models that exist across the Member States;
Amendment 64 #
Recital F
F. whereas some Member States are ensuring an enabling framework for social dialogue, while in some other Member States, social dialogue is under pressure for reasons including belated and ineffective consultation procedures lack of respect for fundamental rights at work,, a lack of capacity and strict representational criteria; whereas the EU regulatory landscape in the field of employment law and company law remains excessively fragmented, which could result in a lack of legal certainty on applicable rules and rights for both employers and employees;
Amendment 71 #
Recital H
H. whereas the enabling conditions for a well-functioning social dialogue are: (i) the existence of strong, independent trade unions and technical capacity in employers’ organisations; (ii) access to relevant and timely information to participate in social dialogue and sufficient time made available for social dialogue; (iii) a commitment from all parties to engage in social dialogue, this includes the involvement of social partners in identifying relevant issues, gathering evidence, sharing information, exploring options and developing preferred solutions; (iv) respect for the fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining; and (v) appropriate institutional support; (vi) respect for social partners autonomy;
Amendment 82 #
Recital J a (new)
J a. whereas the ILO guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all calls for the promotion of the inclusion of specific environmental provisions through collective bargaining and collective agreements at all levels,
Amendment 86 #
Recital L
L. whereas social dialogue and collective bargaining are key instruments for employers and trade unions to use to establish fair wages and working conditions as well as terms of employment; whereas strong collective bargaining systems increase Member States’ resilience in times of economic crisis; whereas societies with strong collective bargaining systems tend to be wealthier and more equal; whereas the right to collective bargaining is an issue that concerns all European workers and that can also have crucial implications for democracy and the rule of law, including respect for fundamental social rights; whereas collective bargaining is a European fundamental right and the EU institutions are bound to respect it by Article 28 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU; whereas in this context, policies that respect, promote and strengthen collective bargaining and the position of workers in wage-setting systems play a critical role in achieving better working conditions;
Amendment 97 #
Recital N a (new)
N a. whereas the increasing digitalisation of the labour markets and new forms of work poses a serious challenge to the representation of vulnerable workers and might jeopardise the European social model;
Amendment 101 #
Recital O
O. whereas workers engaging in non- standard forms of work or in new forms of employment suffer from a lack of representation and exposure to anti-union practices; whereas the emergence of new forms of employment makes it difficult for trade unions to recruit new members;
Amendment 103 #
Recital O a (new)
O a. whereas workers in the care economy are predominantly women and persons with a migration background, whose working conditions and lack of representation expose them to precarious and unsafe jobs;
Amendment 108 #
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that social dialogue and collective bargaining contribute to the social market economy, one of the aims of the Treaty of Lisbon; reiterates that, in line with the Treaties, which explicitly protect the autonomy of social partners and the self-regulatory systems in place in some Member States, social dialogue must be protected in order for social partners to regulate themselves autonomously, ensuring total legitimacy and strong progress on collective agreement coverage; welcomes the Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the EU; stresses that social dialogue at national and Union level needs to be further improved and that more efforts are needed to support collective bargaining coverage and prevent social partners’ membership and organisational density from decreasing; regrets, however, that the proposal does not lay out any sustainable solutions for organising and financing sectoral social dialogue committees; calls on the Commission to maintain its logistical support for sectoral social dialogue committees and to increase its financial, legal and political support; calls on the Commission to continue supporting and closely monitoring sectoral social dialogue in order to ensure alignment between committees and that social dialogue can make a significant contribution to EU policies; strongly urges the Commission to come up with new proposals that fully respect social partners’ autonomy and avoid severely devaluing European sectoral social dialogue;
Amendment 117 #
Paragraph 2
2. Urges the Commission to monitor the implementation of its recommendation at national and Union level, jointly with the Member States and relevant social partners; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure that this monitoring allows social partners to, among other things, identify situations from which they have been excluded or in which they were inadequately involved in national-level consultations on Union and national policy, including access to justice and the right to redress and for the Commission to provide recommendations to the Member States and social partners on possible measures to be taken in order to redress the situation and to bring laws and practices in line with the recommendation;
Amendment 129 #
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned that the density of employers’ organisations and trade unions is declining across all Member States; warns that the decrease in collective bargaining coverage is not only due to the decline in trade union density, but also to inadequate measures against anti-union practices and discrimination and the lack of representation within employers’ organisation and employers’ lack of involvement and willingness to participate in collective bargaining;
Amendment 133 #
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Is concerned abou the lack of representation of workers in the care economy where the majority of workers are women and persons with a migration background and whose jobs are undervalued, underpaid and precarious;
Amendment 134 #
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to undertake legislative and institutional measures to promote collective bargaining in specific sectors, occupations or groups of workers among which the effective recognition of this right continues to be limited; Encourages Member States and social partners to promote social dialogue on addressing the gender inequality by ensuring equal pay for work of equal value, providing for maternity/paternity and parental and family leave and addressing the gender- based violence at work; Encourages social partners to promote the inclusion of women and youth in their leadership and among the negotiators;
Amendment 146 #
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, along with social partners, to commit to reaching collective bargaining coverage of 90 % by 2030, with a view to improving living and working conditions in the Union, contributing to upward social convergence, fighting in-work poverty and social exclusion and reducing wage inequality; Calls on the Commission and the Member States to regularly review progress towards reaching this target together with the social partners;
Amendment 153 #
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to repeal any national legislation that hampers collective bargaining, including any legislation that inhibits trade unions’ access to workplaces for the purpose of organising; Calls on the Member States and the Commission to promote legislative reforms that ensure good faith bargaining, prohibit unfair labour practices and anti-union discrimination and that promote secure forms of employment while taking robust measures against precarious forms of employment, particularly affecting young workers; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote sectoral- level collective bargaining as an important instrument to increase collective agreement coverage, making sure that derogations from collective agreements concluded at a higher level are restricted to situations in which those derogations are needed to maintain quality employment; Calls on the Member States to guarantee the principle of favourability to ensure that labour and social protection cannot be affected by collective agreement at lower levels unless they are more favourable to workers;
Amendment 167 #
Paragraph 9
9. Underlines that reforms in the Member States should not negatively affect collective bargaining and that collective bargaining needs to be promoted at sectoral level, including by supporting the capacity- building of social partners; stresses that labour market reforms at national level must contribute to implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights, including Principle 8 thereof on social dialogue and the involvement of workers, as well as collective bargaining, respect for the autonomy of social partners and the rights to collective action and to be informed and consulted in good time on the transfer, restructuring and merging of undertakings and on collective redundancies; calls on the Commission to analyse any labour reforms relating to these issues in the Member States’ national recovery and resilience plans; and engage with national authorities in order to help them addressing their possible shortcomings;
Amendment 172 #
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. In line with national law and practice, Member States and social partners should be encouraged to consider extension mechanisms to broaden the applicability of a collective agreement to all workers within a sector or company;
Amendment 179 #
Paragraph 10
10. Is concerned about the fact that somethe majority of workers taking part in new forms of work do not enjoy effective representation or participation rights in the workplace; deplores the fact that this is the case, in particular, for sectors where the majority of workers are women, especially those whose tasks are organised by digital platforms and algorithmic management do not enjoy effective representation or participation rights in the workplace; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the right of workers to freedom of association and participation in the workplace for all forms of employment; is concerned about the growing phenomenon of company trade unions or workers’ representatives that are established or controlled by and work in the interests of the employer rather than the workers; stresses that this is particularly serious in certain sectors where the misclassification of workers and precariousness are common; warns that such company trade unions or workers’ representatives are contrary to Article 2 of ILO Convention No 98 concerning the Application of the Principles of the Right to Organise and to Bargain Collectively and to Directive 2002/14/EC15; calls on the Commission and the Member States to, along with social partners, ensure that elections for workers’ representatives comply with the Workers’ Representatives Convention and that workers’ representatives enjoy effective protection from any prejudicial act towards them, including dismissal, based on their status or activities as a workers’ representative or on their union membership or participation in union activities; _________________ 15 Directive 2002/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2002 establishing a general framework for informing and consulting employees in the European Community (OJ L 80, 23.3.2002, p. 29).
Amendment 189 #
Paragraph 11
11. Calls for the EU industrial strategy and EU SME Strategy to ensure that the jobs of tomorrow are not only green, but above allgreen and sustainable and most importantly decent, well paid and based on good working conditions, including as regards health and safety at work, robust social protection and gender equality; calls on the Member States, in the context of the European Green Deal and the, the Recovery and Resilience Facility plans including RePowerEU plan, to adopt and implement, in close cooperation with social partners, comprehensive and coherent policy packages to benefit all societal groups and to make optimal use of public and private funding, including social conditionalities for the creation of quality jobs with fair working conditions and good pay, the promotion of collective bargaining and respect for collective agreements; considers furthermore that all EU financial support to undertakings, including the Green Deal industrial plan programmes, should be made conditional on the undertakings’ compliance with the applicable working and employment conditions and/or employer obligations, including any applicable collective agreements; urges the Commission and the Member States to enforce the requirements that companies receiving public support must avoid redundancies and, the worsening of working conditions, violations of health and safety standards at work and that, under the EU industrial plan, undertakings must respect collective bargaining and information and consultation processes with unions on investments, restructuring and any reforms;
Amendment 190 #
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to make social dialogue on ecological matters and a just transition a standard practice along the policy making cycle, from agenda setting to implementation and from monitoring to reviewing. The views of the social partners should be included in all the planning and implementation phases of a just transition.
Amendment 192 #
Paragraph 11 b (new)
11 b. Calls on the Commission and Member States to provide for information campaigns, training and capacity building for social partners as well as for relevant public authorities to help them become more familiar with climate-related issues and possible labour market repercussions and mitigation measures. This may include anticipating the impacts on employment, adequate and sustainable social protection for job losses and displacement, skills development and social dialogue, including the effective exercise of the right to organise and bargain collectively on climate-related issues.
Amendment 193 #
Paragraph 11 c (new)
11 c. Calls on Member States to adequately staff and fund social dialogue institutions so that they have the capacity to address climate-related issues and to strengthen their problem-solving capacity;
Amendment 199 #
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission and Member States to strongly enforce the social clause in the existing EU Public Procurement Directive16and to revise the directive in order to further strengthen social clauses in public contracts to requireby making it a binding requirement thateconomic operators and subcontractors to fully respect workers’ right to collective bargaining and to set conditions for the full implementation of the applicable sectoral collective agreements and to exclude from tenders companies that have been condemned for engaging in criminal activities or, environmental disasters and damages,union-busting or that have refused to participate in collective bargaining; calls for this revision to exempt all social and welfare services from procurement obligations andto establish a European exclusion mechanism to exclude primary contractors and subcontractors who have repeatedly engaged in unfair competition and tax fraud; calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure compliance with and monitoring and enforcement of the Public Procurement Directive; _________________ 16 Directive 2014/24/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on public procurement and repealing Directive 2004/18/EC (OJ L 94, 28.3.2014, p. 65).
Amendment 207 #
Paragraph 14
14. RStrongly reiterates its call on the Commission to propose a new directive on a general framework for workers’ information, consultation and participation for European companies, including subcontracting chains and franchises, and for companies that use European company mobility instruments, in order to establish minimum standards, including on anticipation of change and restructuring, in particular at company level; reiterates its call for a revision of the European Works Council Directive to ensure, inter alia, proper enforcement, access to justice and effective sanctions for violations of the rules and to improve the functioning of the special negotiating body, including by creating a transnational information and consultation process, which should be properly conducted and completed before any decisions are taken;
Amendment 215 #
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish the necessary conditions and requirements to have at least 80 % ofto ensure that all corporations are covered by sustainable corporate governance agreements, in view of achieving a coverage target of at least 80% by 2030, including by establishing strategies agreed on with workers in order to positively influence environmental, social and economic development through governance practices and market presence, improve directors’ accountability as regards integrating sustainability into corporate decision- making and promote corporate governance practices that contribute to company sustainability, such as those related to, inter alia, corporate reporting, board remuneration, the maximum wage ratio, board composition and stakeholder involvement;