28 Amendments of Stelios KYMPOUROPOULOS related to 2023/2536(RSP)
Amendment 13 #
Recital A
A. whereas social partnership and collective bargaining between trade unions and representatives of employers at national level and social dialogue at EU level are key aspects of the European social model, whose shared legacy of social dialogue, workers’ participation, collective bargaining, employee representation on boards, health and safety representation and tripartite system are the building blocks of a diverse and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future that will contribute to competitiveness, resilience and better and more inclusive EU growth; whereas the financial crisis and the pandemic have shown that countries with robust frameworks for social dialogue and a high coverage of collective bargaining tend to have more competitive and resilient economies;
Amendment 32 #
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; 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 reforms in many Member States that decentralised collective bargaining systems, the 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 45 #
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; whereas these events have shown a pressing need for broader and stronger participation by social partners, especially in light of the green and digital transitions to a sustainable, fair and social future for the EU are to be achieveand the need to leave no-one behind; 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 52 #
Recital D
D. whereas democracy at work plays a key role in strengthening human rights in the workplace and society, in particularnot least when workers’ representatives, including trade unions, are actively involved in business due diligence processes; whereas sustainable corporate governance can only be achievegoes hand in hand with employee involvement; whereas worksocial partners’ 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 environmentactual and potential human rights and environmental adverse impacts, as well as EU initiatives to reduce the use of unfair practices, such as labour exploitation and unfair competition in the single market;
Amendment 57 #
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 63 #
Recital F
F. whereas sommost of the Member States are ensuring an enabling framework for social dialogue, while in some other Member States, social dialogue is under pressure for reasons including ineffective consultation procedures, 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 77 #
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 information to participate in social dialogue; (iii) a commitment from all parties to engage in social dialogue; (iv) respect for the fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining; and (v) appropriate institutional support and (vi) respect for the social partners' autonomy;
Amendment 87 #
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; 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 equalhave more competitive and resilient economies; 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 100 #
Recital O
O. whereas workers engaging in non- standard forms of work or in new forms of employment may suffer from a lack of representation; whereas the emergence of new forms of employment could makes it more difficult for workers representatives' including trade unions to recruit new members;
Amendment 105 #
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 and Communication 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 supportpromote collective bargaining coverage and prevent social partners’ membership and organisational density from decreasing; regrehighlights, however, that the proposal does not lay out any sustainable solutions for organising and financingfurther efforts are needed to provide sustainable organisational and financial support for 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 politicadministrative and financial 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 withensure new proposals that fully respect social partners’ autonomy and avoid severely devaluingnegatively impacting on European sectoral social dialogue; recalls that the financial crisis and the pandemic have shown that countries with robust frameworks for social dialogue and high coverage of collective bargaining tend to have more competitive and resilient economies;
Amendment 119 #
Paragraph 2
2. Urges the Commission to regularly 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;
Amendment 120 #
Paragraph 3
3. Believes that freedom of assembly and association and workers’ rights to organise, toas laid down in the European Charter of Fundamental Rights, as well as collective union representation and to collectively call for reforms within their workplaces are fundamental aspects of the European project and core principles of the European social model, which have been affirmed and legally upheld by the EU institutions; further underlines that every citizen of the Union has the freedom to seek employment, to work, to exercise the right of establishment and to provide services in any Member State, and the right to engage in work and to pursue a freely chosen or accepted occupation; moreover emphasises that workers and employers have in accordance with Community law and national laws and practices, the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements at the appropriate levels;
Amendment 128 #
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned that the density of employers’ organisations and trade unions is declining across all Member States; warns; warns about the impact that the decrease in collective bargaining coverage is not only due to the decline in trade union density, but also to the lack of representation within employers’ organisation and employers’ lack of involvement and willingness to participate in collective bargainingmay have on labour protection and the competitiveness and resilience of European economies;
Amendment 138 #
Paragraph 5
5. Urges the Member States to take note of the fact that both mutual recognition of social partners and the statutory recognition of trade unions and employers’ organisations by the authorities of each Member State are keyin accordance with national laws and practices are one of the elements contributing to a successful collective bargaining framework, provided employers and workers are able to choose freely which organisation(s) and representatives will represent them;
Amendment 142 #
Paragraph 6
6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to fully involve and consult with social partners on the design and implementation of economic, social and employment policies and decision- making in open processes, including, including in the context of the European Semester process;
Amendment 150 #
Paragraph 7
7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States, along with social partners, to commit towork towards reaching collective bargaining coverage of 90 % by 2030at least 80 %, 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;
Amendment 159 #
Paragraph 8
8. Calls on the Member States to repealensure any national legislation that hampersimpedes on the right of collective bargaining, including any legislation that inhibits trade unions’ access accordance with national law and practices, the right to negotiate and conclude collective agreements, and the right to wforkplaces for the purpose of organisingm and join trade unions for the purpose of protecting their interests; 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;
Amendment 164 #
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 levelstrive to promote collective bargaining, 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;
Amendment 175 #
Paragraph 10
10. Is concerned about the fact that some 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; 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; sStresses 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 ande right of workers and employers, or their respective organisations, to engage in collective bargaining and the freedom of assembly, and that there should be no interference from employers which would restrict those rights; calls on 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 186 #
Paragraph 11
11. Calls for the EU industrial strategy to ensure that the jobs of tomorrow are not only green, but above all 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 RePowerEU plan, to adopt and implement, in close cooperation with social partners, comprehensive and coherent policy packagmeasures to the benefit of 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 recipents of EU financial support to undertakings, including the Green Deal industrial plan programmes, should be made conditional on the undertakings’ compliance withrespect 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 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 196 #
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to strongly enforce the social clause inof the existing EU Public Procurement Directive16and to revise the directive in order to further strengthen social clauses in public contracts to require economic operators and subcontractors to fully respect workers’ right to collective bargaining and to set conditions for the full implementation of the applicable sectoralcollective agreements and to exclude from tenders companies that have been condemned for engaging in criminal activities or 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 and to establish a European exclusion mechanism to exclude primary contractors and subcontractors who have repeatedly engaged in unfair competition and tax fraudrecalls that according to current EU law, it should be possible to include ensuring compliance withcollective agreements without breaching Union law on public contracts; 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 208 #
Paragraph 14
14. Reiterates its call on the Commission to propose a new directive on a general frameworkfollowing its anticipated impact assessment and in consultation with social partners, to introduce a new directive on 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 onon issues such as anticipation of change, digital transformation 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 viin line with its resolautions 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 taken2 February 2023 with recommendations to the Commission on Revision of European Works Councils Directive;
Amendment 212 #
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to establish the necessary conditions and requirements to have at least 80 % of corporations covered by sustainable corporate governance agreements 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 involvementWelcomes the Commission's proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive;
Amendment 217 #
Paragraph 16
16. Welcomes the fact that the Commission communication on social dialogue states that the Commission will appointssign the role of a social dialogue coordinator in each Commission service to get a better understanding of social dialogue across the institution; is concerunderlineds that, without ae importance of clear mandate on what their roles, rights and responsibilities entail, these coordinators willifying this role in order for them to have an insufficient impact; suggests that the Commission involve these social dialogue coordinators in all employment-related aspects and effects of EU regulations and policymaking, beyond the scope of Article 153 TFEUreiterates and joins the call of the Commission on social partners to provide more joint outcome positions ahead of relevant Commission proposals;
Amendment 223 #
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Member States to ratify and implement all ILO core conventions, including No 155 concerning Occupational Safety and Health and the Working Environment and No 187 concerning the promotional framework for occupational safety and health, which have both been recently designated as ILO core conventions and which have not yet been ratified by all Member States; calls on the Commission to encourage the Member States to ratify and implement all the ILO core conventions;
Amendment 225 #
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the proper functioning of national individual and collective labour dispute settlement systems, as recommended by various ILO conventions and recommendationsILO, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration services, in accordance with national law and practices, and which should have simplified procedures and enough resources available to assist both workers and employers and which should be free of charge and expeditious; calls on the Member States with decentralised labour mediation services to ensure that regional authorities cannot dismantle those services to guarantee a similar level of protection for all workers and employers within the national territory;
Amendment 229 #
Paragraph 19
19. Calls on the Commission to respect the agreements between European social partners at both cross-industry and sectoral level, as laid down in the Tensure the provisions laid down in Article 155 in the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) are respected, where should management and labour so desire, the dialogue between them at Union level may lead to contractual relatieons, including agreements; highlights that respect for European social partner agreements includes their implementation either in accordance with the procedures and practices specific to management and labour and the Member States, or for matters covered by Article 153 TFEU, and at the joint request of the signatory parties for matters covered by Article 153 TFEU, by means of a Council decision following a proposal from the Commission;
Amendment 237 #
Paragraph 20
20. Highlights that recital 35 of Directive (EU) 2019/212117states that ‘[i]n certain circumstances, the right of companies to carry out a cross-border operation could be used for abusive or fraudulent purposes, such as for the circumvention of the rights of employees, social security payments or tax obligations, or for criminal purposes’; considers it essential, in this regard, to adequately define ambitioushat the provisions of the Directive 2002/14/EC laying downEU minimum standards for information, andconsultation, board-level representation and the participation of workers when companies restructure across borders; calls on the Commission, in the context of its forthcoming evaluation of Directive (EU) 2019/2121 of employees are ensured; calls on the Commission, in the context of its forthcoming evaluation of Directive (EU) 2019/2121, by 1 February 2027 and when presenting its report on the findings of the evaluation including considering the possible need to introduce a harmonised framework on board level employee representation in Union law, to take account of existing good practices and the results of studies on and assessments of the positive socioeconomic effects and consequences of employee representation in corporate bodies, while also amending existing directives on this issue, which could help improve corporate governance; calls on the Commission to develop initiatives to raise awareness and improve knowledge of national and EU ruleprovisionsgoverning employee representation in corporate bodies in the various Member States and to foster the exchange of best practices, including assessing the different forms of worker participation and their socioeconomic effects; reiterates that several EU legal acts concerning workers’ board-level representation rights do not establish minimum requirements for board- level representation in EU companies in their various forms or for companies that use EU company legal instruments to enable cross- border company mobility and legal reorganisation, including cross-border mergers, conversions and divisions; calls on the Commission and theMember States to take urgent and decisive action to ensure that EU companieUnion-scale undertakingsrespect workers’ information, consultation and participation rights and that, accordingly, they comply with existing EUnionand national legal obligations; _________________ 17 Directive (EU) 2019/2121 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 November 2019 amending Directive (EU) 2017/1132 as regards cross-border conversions, mergers and divisions (OJ L 321, 12.12.2019, p. 1).