Activities of Elżbieta RAFALSKA related to 2020/0310(COD)
Plenary speeches (1)
Adequate minimum wages in the European Union (debate)
Amendments (29)
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 1 a (new)
Recital 1 a (new)
(1a) Pursuant to Article 153 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the European Union supports and complements the activities of Member States in the field of working conditions, but this does not apply to remuneration. Minimum wage setting should therefore be carried out by the Member States.
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) Guideline 5 of Council Decision 2020/ 1512/EU on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States37 calls on Member States to ensure an effective involvement of social partners in wage-setting, providing for fair wages that enable a decent standard of living and allowing for an adequate responsiveness of wages to productivity developments, with a view to upward convergence. The Guideline also calls on Member States to promote social dialogue and collective bargaining on wage setting. It also calls on Member States and the social partners to ensure that all workers have adequate and fair wages by benefitting from collective agreements or adequate statutory minimum wages, and taking into account their impact on competitiveness, job creation and in- work poverty. The Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 202138 states that Member States should adopt measures to ensure fair working conditions. In addition, the Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy 202039 recalled that in the context of growing social divides, it is important to ensure that each worker earns an adequate wage. Several Country Specific Recommendations have also been issued to some Member States in the field of minimum wages. However, individual countries may be little inclined to improve their minimum wage settings because of the perception that this could negatively affect their external cost competitivenesThe Union should encourage Member States to improve their minimum wage settings and their amounts, taking into account the different traditions and economic conditions of the individual Member States. __________________ 37Council Decision 2020/1512/EU of 13 October 2020 on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States (OJ L 344, 19.10.2020, p. 22–28). 38 Commission Communication COM(2020) 575 final. 39 Commission Communication COM(2019) 650 final.
Amendment 170 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 9 a (new)
Recital 9 a (new)
(9 a) Taking into account the unpredictable effects and duration of the economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we should bear in mind that this directive should be implemented after analysing its effect on the situation on the labour markets in the Member States of the European Union. We should prevent a situation in which the implementation of the aims of this directive could have a negative effect on the labour market.
Amendment 206 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 13
Recital 13
(13) While strong collective bargaining at sector or cross-industry level contributes to ensuring adequate minimum wage protection, traditional collective bargaining structures have been eroding during the last decades, in part due to structural shifts in the economy towards less unionised sectors and to the decline in trade union membership related to the increase of atypical and new forms of workchanges on the labour market.
Amendment 208 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 13 a (new)
Recital 13 a (new)
(13 a) The legal form of the employment relationship or employment contract varies from one Member State to another and is a matter of national competence. The characteristics of employment which enable it to be recognised as an employment relationship vary greatly from one Member State to another, as is clearly shown by the extensive research carried out by the labour law representatives from those Member States1a. __________________ 1a Regulating the employment relationship in Europe: A guide to Recommendation No 198, European Labour Law Network 2013
Amendment 210 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 14
Recital 14
(14) The Commission has consulted management and labour in a two-stage process with regard to possible action to address the challenges related to adequate minimum wages protection in the Union, in accordance with Article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. There was no agreement among the social partners to enter into negotiations with regard to those matters. It is, however, important to take action at Union level to ensure that workers in the Union are protected by adequate minimum wages, taking into account the outcomes of the social partners’ consultation.
Amendment 226 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 16
Recital 16
(16) In full respect of Article 153(5) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, this Directive neither aims to harmonise the level of minimum wages across the Union nor to establish an uniform mechanism for setting minimum wages. It does not interfere with the freedom of Member States to set statutory minimum wages or promote access to minimum wage protection provided by collective agreements, according to the traditions and specificities of each country and in full respect of national competences and social partners’ contractual freedom. This Directive does not impose an obligation on the Member States where minimum wage protection is ensured exclusively via collective agreements to introduce a statutory minimum wage nor to make the collective agreements universally applicable. Also, this Directive does not establish the level of pay, which falls within the contractual freedom of the social partners at national level and within the relevant competence of Member States.
Amendment 260 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) Well-functioning collective bargaining on wage setting is an important means to ensure that workers are protected by adequate minimum wages. In the Member States with statutory minimum wages, collective bargaining supports general wage developments and therefore contributes to improving the adequacy of minimum wages. In the Member States where minimum wage protection is provided exclusively by collective bargaining, their level as well as the share of protected workers are directly determined by the functioning of the collective bargaining system and collective bargaining coverage. Strong and well- functioning collective bargaining together with a high coverage of sectorial or cross- industry collective agreements strengthehave a positive effect on the adequacy and the coverage of minimum wages.
Amendment 263 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) In a context of declining collective bargaining coverage, it is essential that the Member States promote collective bargaining to enhance workers’ access to minimum wage protection provided by collective agreements. Member States with a high collective bargaining coverage tend to have a low share of low-wage workers and high minimum wages. Member States with a small share of low wage earners have a collective bargaining coverage rate above 70%. Similarly, the majority of the Member States with high levels of minimum wages relative to the median wage have a collective bargaining coverage above 70%. While all Member States should be encouraged to promote collective bargaining, those who do not reach this level of coverage should, in consultation and/or agreement with the social partners, provide for or, where it already exists, strengthen a framework of facilitative procedures and institutional arrangements enabling the conditions for collective bargaining. Such framework should be established by law or by tripartite agreementIt should be stressed in this context that Member States should promote not only a quantitative approach, but also a qualitative one, in order that workers' representatives who have been selected on an ad hoc basis or appointed by their employer are not involved in negotiations.
Amendment 288 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) Sound rules, procedures and practice for setting and updating statutory minimum wages are necessary to deliver adequate minimum wages, while safeguarding jobs and the competitiveness of firms including small and medium-sized enterprises. They include a number of elements to preserve the adequacy of statutory minimum wages, including criteria and indicators to assess adequacy, regular and timely updates, the existence of consultative bodies and the involvement of social partners. A timely and effective involvement of the latter is another element of good governance that allows for an informed and inclusive decision-making process.
Amendment 350 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 25
Recital 25
(25) Reliable monitoring and data collection are key to ensure the effective protection of minimum wages. The Commission should report everyregularly, every three years, to the European Parliament and to the Council its assessment of developments in the adequacy and coverage of minimum wages on the basis of annual data and information to be provided by Member States every three years. In addition, progress should be monitored in the framework of the process of economic and employment policy coordination at Union level. In that context, the Employment Committee should examine every year the situation in the Member States on the basis of the reports produced by the Commission and other multilateral surveillance tools such as benchmarking, taking into account the information provided by the Member States and the Committee’s recommendations within the European Semester.
Amendment 360 #
Proposal for a directive
Recital 28
Recital 28
(28) The reforms and measures adopted by the Member States to promote adequate minimum wage protection of workers, while being steps in the right direction, have not been comprehensive and systematic. Moreover, individual countries may be little inclined to improve the adequacy and coverage of minimum wages because of the perception that this could negatively affect their external cost competitiveness. Since the objectives of this Directive cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of their scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on the European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.
Amendment 465 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 3
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 3
(3) ‘collective bargaining’ means all negotiations which take place between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations, on the one hand, and one or more workers’ organisattrade unions, on the other, for determining working conditions and terms of employment; and/or regulating relations between employers and workers; and/or regulating relations between employers or their organisations and a worker organisation or worker organisattrade unions;
Amendment 469 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 4
Article 3 – paragraph 1 – point 4
(4) ‘collective agreement’ means all agreements in writing regarding working conditions and terms of employment concluded by the social partners as an outcome of collective bargaining, taking into account the rules on employment and remuneration;
Amendment 518 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 4 – paragraph 2
Article 4 – paragraph 2
Amendment 575 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
2. The national criteria referred to in paragraph 1 shallmay include at least the following two elements:
Amendment 608 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
(da) inflation;
Amendment 611 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – point d b (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 2 – point d b (new)
(db) economic growth;
Amendment 651 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 5 – paragraph 5
Article 5 – paragraph 5
Amendment 698 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 7 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that the social partners are involved in a timely and effective manner in statutory minimum wage setting and updating, including through participation in consultative bodies referred to in Article 5(5) and notably as concerns:
Amendment 779 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – introductory part
2. Every three years Member States shall report the following data to the Commission on an annual basis, before 1 October of each year:
Amendment 789 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point a – point ii
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point a – point ii
Amendment 795 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point a – point iii
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point a – point iii
Amendment 809 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point b – point iii
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – point b – point iii
Amendment 817 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 1
Member States shall provide the statistics and information referred to in this paragraph, where possible disaggregated by gender, age, disability, company size and sector.
Amendment 821 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 3
Article 10 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 3
Amendment 839 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 4
Article 10 – paragraph 4
4. The Commission shall assess the data transmitted by the Member States in the reports referred to in paragraph 2, and shall report annually to the European Parliament and to the Council.
Amendment 849 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 – paragraph 5
Article 10 – paragraph 5
5. On the basis of the report issued by the Commission, the Employment Committee set up in accordance with Article 150 TFEU shall carry out everyregularly, every three years, an examination of the promotion of collective bargaining on wage setting and of the adequacy of minimum wages in the Member States.
Amendment 858 #
Proposal for a directive
Article 10 a (new)
Article 10 a (new)
Article 10a Derogations 1. If the application of this Directive would require significant adaptations to the national system of the Member State in relation to the implementation of Article 10, the Commission may, through implementing acts, grant a derogation for the period requested by the Member State in question, provided that this period does not exceed three years. 2. If the derogation pursuant to point 1 is still justified by sufficient evidence by the end of the period for which it has been granted, the Commission may grant, through implementing acts, a derogation for a further period, as requested by the Member State in question, provided that this period does not exceed two years. 3. For the purposes of points 1 and 2 above, the Member State will provide the Commission with a duly justified application by 1 October or six months before the end of the period for which the current derogation has been granted, depending on the situation.