42 Amendments of Rudi KENNES related to 2024/2829(RSP)
Amendment 1 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Citation 2 a (new)
Citation 2 a (new)
– having regard to the revised European Social Charter,
Amendment 5 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Citation 5 a (new)
Citation 5 a (new)
– having regard to its resolution of 23 November 2023 on job creation – the just transition and impact investments,
Amendment 7 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Citation 5 b (new)
Citation 5 b (new)
– having regard to the International Labour Organization (ILO) 2015 Guidelines for a just transition towards environmentally sustainable economies and societies for all,
Amendment 24 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas collective bargaining and strongfull trade union involvement are essential for ensuring that workers’ voices are heard during restructuring negotiations; whereas full workers’ involvement through information, consultation and participation in company decision-making processes is more important than everfundamental to consolidate the fair and just transition of companies and to protect jobs and collective interests; whereas just transition is about supporting social justice and ensuring fair burden- sharing while fighting climate changewhile fighting climate change and ensuring that the burden of the green and digital transition is borne by the stakeholders with the largest financial capabilities, and not only by workers and taxpayers;
Amendment 34 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas only 40 % of European trade unions report having sufficient representatives and financial resources to represent workers effectively during restructuring processes4 ; whereas trade union representatives trained in restructuring negotiations are 50 % more effective in preserving jobs5 ; __________________ 4 European Trade Union Institute for Research, 2021. 5 International Labour Organization, 2022.
Amendment 38 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas a core objectives of restructuring processes should be job retentionretaining jobs, valuing existing skills and competences within the workforce; re- and upskilling workers when necessary; redeploying workers in other, suitable, posts in the same location as their residence or as close as possible to it; preserving the same wages and working conditions or improving them for all workers affected;
Amendment 52 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas companies oftenin most cases prioritise short-term profits over economic sustainability and long-term employment stability, underscoring the need forto demand corporate social responsibility in restructuring plans and full trade union involvement;
Amendment 65 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas the automotive industry is a vitcrucial economic pillar in Europesector for Europe with about 13.8 million people employed directly and in the wider supply chain, and it contributes over 7% to the EU total GDP;
Amendment 78 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles is imperative, but it must be achieved in a way that avoids job losses in traditional automotive manufacturing; whereas between 2005 and 2016 about 480.000 jobs were lost in Europe1a; the current forecast is that 600,000 will have been lost in the automotive sector between 2021 and 20311b; __________________ 1a Pavlinek (2019) https://academic.oup.com/joeg/article/20/ 2/509/5303643 1b CLEPA European Association of Automotive Suppliers 2021
Amendment 84 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas the AUDI factory in Brussels currently employs 3,000 workers and it has announced that the factory will close in February 2025, and no plan has so far been established by Volkswagen to preserve those jobs; whereas the Volkswagen group, which is the owner of AUDI, has also announced the potential closure of at least three factories in Germany, without specifying how many of the 300,000 workers employed by the group could be at risk;
Amendment 87 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas the anticipation of change is a key feature of good organisational management and should ensure that any inevitable transformation is faced with the purpose of preserving jobs, innovating and adapting to change in a way that benefits workers and the community affected by it; whereas employers and shareholders, and not workers should take responsibility for inadequate management;
Amendment 88 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F c (new)
Recital F c (new)
Fc. whereas restructuring processes take place in the private and in the public sector, affecting both white and blue collar workers; whereas restructuring can take different forms such as relocation, outsourcing, offshoring, delocalisation, bankruptcy, strategic and fraudulent insolvency, merger and acquisition, internal job-cutting, and expansion;
Amendment 89 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F d (new)
Recital F d (new)
Fd. whereas privatisation of public sector utilities and services, as well as the liberalisation of former state-owned monopolies has introduced business practices such as restructuring and a profit-making culture into the management of public services; this has proved in many cases not to have been beneficial to the quality of the public services delivered, particularly in sectors such as healthcare or public transport;
Amendment 90 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F e (new)
Recital F e (new)
Fe. whereas the pursuit of cost reduction and of a vaguely defined efficiency are used to justify restructuring processes - in both the private and public sector - usually leading to job losses, lower wages and worse working conditions, forced relocations, precarisation of employment, increased work intensity, lower protection against unfair dismissal, lower health and safety standards, and outsourcing;
Amendment 91 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F f (new)
Recital F f (new)
Ff. whereas restructuring always affects directly the interests of employees and their families as well as local communities as it results in dismissals, unemployment, distress, and regional crises;
Amendment 92 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F g (new)
Recital F g (new)
Fg. whereas in some Member States, such as France, legislation requires that restructuring plans must detail how restructuring processes will proceed and how the employer plans to mitigate the effects of such processes;
Amendment 93 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F h (new)
Recital F h (new)
Fh. whereas a significant part of restructuring involves offshoring to countries in which labour legislation and wage levels are less favourable to workers, resulting in high profits for companies, job-losses in Europe, and exploitation in Global South countries;
Amendment 94 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F i (new)
Recital F i (new)
Fi. whereas the EU has imposed to Candidate countries draconian privatisation reforms resulting in large- scale restructuring operations, with mass dismissals and redundancies, such as in Poland in 2004 with the privatisation of the steel sector which resulted in about 10,000 employees losing their jobs, and in the Czech Republic, also required to privatise its largest steelworks in 2006 and 2007, resulting in 3,200 jobs lost; by the end of 2005 Poland had privatised more than 8,000 state-owned companies;1a __________________ 1a ETUC 2007: Overview of restructuring in Europe
Amendment 95 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F j (new)
Recital F j (new)
Fj. whereas the sale of state assets and stakes in strategic sectors such as telecommunications, transport, energy, water management, and postal services, and a substantial reduction in state ownership of corporations in competitive sectors such as iron and steel, chemicals, automotive, airlines, insurance companies, and banks have resulted in large-scale restructuring processes, job losses, lower quality of services, significant profits for shareholders, the loss of flagship national companies, and, in some cases, the inability to manufacture essential goods such as personal protective equipment during the COVID-19 crisis;
Amendment 96 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Recital F k (new)
Recital F k (new)
Fk. whereas the International Labour Organization (ILO) has developed since 2013 guidelines and a framework of how a just transition can lead to sustainable economies for all communities globally;
Amendment 103 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Highlights that employment security, fair wages and decent working conditions are fundamental rights that must be upheld in all restructuring processes to protect workers from corporate profit- seeking strategies; stresses the urgent need for an ambitious European industrial policy with significant investment that will support common goods andensure the full functioning of public services, innovation, and deliverthe creation of quality jobs and social progress; underlines that this policy should be based on strong public services, social protection, housing, transport and childcarequality and affordable public and social housing; affordable, efficient and carbon-neutral transport; affordable and available childcare, elderly care, and care for people with disabilities; supports a robust European industrial policy based on resilient and well-resourcfully-funded public services and public administration, covering not just manufacturing, but all sectors and all transitions;
Amendment 119 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Reiterates its call for a permanent investment tool at EU level to ensure that the necessary resources are available in all sectors for developing an industrial policy and for policies that help reach the social and green targets and the preservation and creation of quality jobs, based on the positive experiences of NextGenerationEU and the strong labour focus of the support to mitigate unemployment risks in an emergency instrument (SURE); requests that EU funding programmes are always closely scrutinised to ensure that resources are allocated towards the initiatives for which the funds have been approved;
Amendment 131 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Highlights that the deliveryvelopment of a European industrial policy for quality jobs requires the full involvement of social partners and needs to be implemented through social dialogue and collective bargaining, particularly with regards to the Clean Industrial Deal; calls on the Commission to include the overall objective of raising work quality at the EUEU and Member State level;
Amendment 141 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls for the EU to adopt trade policies that protect European jobs while promoting fair and ethical trade; calls for strict countervailing tariffrols to be applied to imports from countries where unfair labour practices, and low environmental standards, or heavy state subsidies distort competitione been observed; stresses that future trade agreements must include strong labour clauses to ensure that global trade benefits workers, rather than undermining their rights and working conditions; calls for the EU to revise state aid rules to allow Member States to invest in their own economic growth, for example in the production of solar panels or pharmaceutical products, and to avoid engaging in trade disputes with competing economies which can result in retaliatory counter-tariffs on EU goods, with further damage to EU economies and workers;
Amendment 152 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Urges the Commission to revise the European Public Procurement Directive6 in order to estaban from publishc preferential treatocurement for companies that do not complying with collective bargaining agreements; calls on the Commission to strengthen and implement the social clause and exclude from tenders companies that have engaged in criminal activities or union busting, or that have refused to participate in collective bargaining; highlights the importance of ensuring that public money is used to invest in those engaged in just transitions with the aim of promoting collective agreements and increasing trade union densities; considers, furthermore, that all EU financial support to private undertakings should be made conditional on their compliance with theall applicable working and employment conditions and/or health and safety requirements and employer obligations resulting from the relevant collective agreements; believes that this support should also be conditional on their commitment to investing in European industries and maintaining jobs in the EU; __________________ 6 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, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2014/24/oj.
Amendment 168 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Reiterates its call for EU funding, including State aid, to be conditional on public policy objectives, especially in strategic sectors, and on social requirements, in order to offer high-quality jobs, promote collective bargaining, respect EU labour rights and standards, and ensure improved wages and working conditions that guarantee a good standard of living for workers and their families;
Amendment 180 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. Supports investments in sectors such as electric vehicle battery production, charging infrastructure, renewable energy and digital technologies; insists that these investments must prioritise workers’ rights and, community development, and the protection of the environment;
Amendment 188 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Invites the Commission to monitor the trends in restructuring and their impact on employment, using data from tools, such as the European Restructuring Monitor and the EU Fair Transition Observatory, to track the number of jobs created or abolished and the companies concerned; calls on the Commission to promote the recording of all restructuring plans with the labour authorities following the standard practice in France, and to promote the adoption of this practice across all Member States;
Amendment 201 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Stresses that restructuringtransformation processes are essential ininevitable in the path to achieving the green transition objectives and are an imperative for a net-zero economy that sustains its social and environmental standards; warns that restructuring processes must never come at the cost of workers’ rights; calls on the Commission to take action to reinforce and promote collective bargaining, ensuring an increase in collective bargaining coverage to at least 80 % in all Member States following the requirement of the Minimum Wage Directive, and guaranteeing full respect of the right to collective bargaining and the autonomy of social partners;
Amendment 211 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Emphasises that developments leading to restructuring processes should be anticipated by management, and plans for changes should start as early as possible to prevent insolvency and mitigate job losses; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support companies working closely with trade unions and workers’ representatives to identify warning signs early and develop comprehensive plans to address employment needsand social needs; points out that good practices for transformation and restructuring should be developed by comparing case studies in which anticipation of change by management was successful and by learning from successful experiences in the past;
Amendment 224 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Warns that restructuring must not be used as a pretext to violate workers’ and trade union rights7 ; deplores the violation of the fundamental rights of collective bargaining and information and consultation before a decision is made; calls on the Commission to put in place safeguards to prevent the misuse of restructuring as a means to exploit workers or avoid obligations, particularly in cases of tactical insolvency; and fraudulent insolvency; calls for severe punitive measures in these cases; __________________ 7 Study – ‘Study on monitoring the application of the EU Quality Framework for anticipation of change and restructuring’, European Commission, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, Publications Office of the European Union, 2018, https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/- /publication/1c22896d-4e10-11ea-aece- 01aa75ed71a1/language-en.
Amendment 236 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to urgently present a proposal for a directive on just transition in the world of work, through anticipation and management of change, based on the principles of trade union involvement like information, consultation, participation, and collective bargaining; urges the Commission to ensure the right for all to training without cost to the worker and during working hours; believes that this proposal should include a right to job-to- job transition and a right to quality upskilling or reskilling training, and employee training and career development support; points out that when job changes are necessary, the priority should always be upskilling and reskilling workers to keep them in the same company; notes that, when job-to-job transition is necessary, keeping workers in the same sector and region while allowing them sufficient time for reconversion without personal financial losses is essential; stresses that the principle of a fair and social just transition will apply to restructuring for the green and digital transition, especially in transforming industries in strategic sectors such as automotive and energy, and willmust put the workers first;
Amendment 247 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Considers that in order to prevent the loss of jobs, and in the absence of an industrial plan agreed with the social partners, a moratorium on closures and forced redundancies should be possibleis introduced; calls on the Commission and the Member States to urgently agree on a moratorium on forced redundancies with a temporary support programme to protect employment during transitions, creating space for the cClean iIndustrial dDeal and avoiding the loss of strategic industrial capacity; demands stronger protections against unfair dismissals and calls for workers affected by restructuring to be guaranteed adequate compensation, retraining opportunities and support in securing new employment; reaffirms that the dignity of workers must always take precedence over corporate profits; calls on the Commission to implement measures to close loopholes and defeat fraudulent practices in existing legislature with which companies try to circumvent the protection of workers and workers' representatives in the cases of restructuring;
Amendment 249 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls for binding social plans to be a mandatory requirement in all restructuring processes agreed by workers’ representative bodies, trade unions, and management; these may include: reskilling and upskilling, support with voluntary redeployment in another workplace, career guidance, free legal advice; in case job losses cannot be avoided, upgrading of unemployment benefits provided by the company should be possible and redundancy payments or compensation for losing employment should be obligatory; each social plan has to be tailored to the different types of restructuring and employees and trade union representatives must be fully informed about the anticipated restructuring plans in due course and involved in the drafting of those plans; a social plan should always contain active measures to retain work and, only in the absence of possible alternatives, satisfactory redundancy and compensation payments should be offered to the workers affected to make up for the job loss;
Amendment 259 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission to urgently modify the rules on state aid and to develop a comprehensive plan, similar to the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act, focused on boosting investment in green technologies, renewable energy, and sustainable and strategic industries, with the objective of accelerating the EU’s transition to a climate-neutral economy while strengthening the European social model and social justice;
Amendment 267 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls for the urgent establishment of a comprehensive directive to address the challenges and complexities associated with subcontracting in Europe to ensure fair working conditions, adequate rights and protections for subcontracted workersworkers, and joint and severe liability along the entire subcontracting chain; that companies cannot use subcontracting to avoid complying with European and national labour law; calls for the directive to include provisions for collective bargaining rights to enable subcontracted workers to negotiate their terms of employment effectively following the terms of the lead company;
Amendment 277 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Calls for green collective bargaining in the form of negotiable clauses between the social partners of collective agreements that have a direct and indirect effect on the environment; highlights that green collective agreements can cover the impact of companibusines’s activities on the environment, the protection of workers from the effects of climate change, and the impact of the green transformation on employment and work organisation; notes that two main forms of green collective agreements can be identified; insists on the integration of: green clauses and agreements to manage green restructuring; insists on the need for the integration of both;
Amendment 279 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the Commission to consider whether the nature of services of general interest and services of general economic interest such as healthcare, care services, education, public transport, postal services1a, etc. should not be subject to liberalisation, to the same competition rules as other commercial services, to restructuring and outsourcing and, therefore, not applied to the Public Procurement Directive; calls for the re- communalisation and in-sourcing of all essential services in all those circumstances in which there is a clear long-term need for a service which requires regular working patterns and permanent staff; notes that the guiding principles for public services must be high quality, continuity and security, equal access, affordable prices, universal provision, transparency, and high job quality; __________________ 1a Articles 16, 86(2), and 36 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (TEC); 2004 White Paper on services of general interest [[COM (2004) 374, 12.5.2004
Amendment 281 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Call on the Commission to ensure that the aim of restructuring should always be internal mobility before dismissals, pursuing reskilling and upskilling for workers whenever possible, prioritising support with transitioning to similar employment in the same residence area of the worker, and the creation of new organisational operations and related jobs to reflect the change that led to the restructuring;
Amendment 282 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 c (new)
Paragraph 16 c (new)
16c. Invites the Commission and the Member States in situations of restructuring to encourage and support the takeover of failing organisations into the hands of workers in forms such as cooperatives or individual small businesses to use their competences and expertise; senior workers should be given the opportunity to take voluntary early retirement; the offer of flexible or reduced working hours should always be the preference before being dismissed;
Amendment 283 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 d (new)
Paragraph 16 d (new)
16d. Reiterates the need for restructuring processes to take place only with the full involvement of workers' representatives and trade unions; their drafting, agreement and implementation should only be possible with the agreement of workers, their representatives, and trade unions, and with the possibility for any such plans to be vetoed if unfavourable to workers;
Amendment 284 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 e (new)
Paragraph 16 e (new)
16e. Urges the Commission to assess the proper implementation of the Minimum Wage Directive and to ensure and safeguard minimum wages by law or collective agreements; calls on the Commission to monitor the proper implementation of the Minimum Wage Directive to ensure that all workers are covered by a decent level of wages that guarantees that workers can live at least above the poverty threshold;