37 Amendments of Thomas HÄNDEL related to 2012/2061(INI)
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas the crisis which began in 2008global economic crisis which was triggered in 2008 and has been significantly worsened by financial speculation in the financial sector has served to speed up the rate of change sharply; whereas it has added to the structural pressures to adapt to change resulting from globalisation's more immediate constraints which subject undertakings, workers, territories and governments to critical tensions;
Amendment 15 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas as a result of radical changes in economic strategies the last 30 years have seen a massive shift in wealth from the real to the financial economy; whereas the resulting shrinkage in the role of the State has led to chronic underfunding, indebtedness, pressure on the public authorities to privatise and cuts in jobs and services at all levels; whereas restructuring in the private sector is often used as a pretext for redundancies in an effort to boost share prices; and whereas the situation of those who create all the goods and provide all the services, but bear the full brunt of the economic crisis, needs to be improved;
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas all the Member States in which relatively few workers have been made redundant since the start of the crisis have very well developed industrial relations systems under which workers and their representatives have relatively many rights in the areas of consultation, information and codetermination, arrangements which have led to joint agreements being concluded at works level on the basis of laws and collective agreements;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas, as stated in the Annual Growth Survey: advancing the Union’s comprehensive response to the crisis, "the positive export performance of some Member States shows that success in global markets relies on wider factors such as sector specialisation, innovation, and skills levels that enhance real competitiveness"; whereas against the specific background of the crisis undertakings in some Member States have made every effort to retain their well- trained and highly experienced workers;
Amendment 29 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas EU undertakings cannot hope to be successful on world markets simply by undercutting their competitors’ prices, but instead only by developing good products, processes and services, which in turn makes a good education system, good training and further training for workers, good working conditions and welfare systems and sufficient investment in research and development essential;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas the fact that during the crisis successful industrial undertakings in the EU which do well on export markets have tried to retain their well-trained and highly experienced workers shows that the Commission’s flexicurity approach, based on short-term employment contracts, has failed and does not meet the requirements of firms which are competitive on world markets; whereas precisely the same can be said of the measures in the 'employment package', which is based on reduced protection against dismissal and the downgrading of other rights for employees with open-ended contracts, even though successful firms take a long- term approach, want to keep their workers and are suffering from a skills shortage in certain areas;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas there is a danger that the good practices identified in the wake of the crisis, in particular by the ILO, will be largely disregarded and not used to address future crises; whereas, therefore, the EU institutions should investigate and document the practices in question, so that they can also be used when restructuring is carried out; whereas in some Member States redundancies have not been used as a means of addressing the crisis and time not taken up by work has been set aside for further training;
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 1, Recital 9 a (new)
Recommendation 1, Recital 9 a (new)
(9a) The new focus of economic governance is the consolidation of state budgets, so that restrictions on public spending are jeopardising measures to cushion the adverse impact of restructuring operations.
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 2, paragraph 2
Recommendation 2, paragraph 2
Amendment 129 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 2, paragraph 2
Recommendation 2, paragraph 2
2. To that end, companies and employees' representatives, when dealing with restructuring, in a spirit of cooperation, shall recognise that these processes aim to protect both the interests of companies as regards competitiveness and sustainability, and those of their employees as regards social security and the long-term safeguarding of jobs.
Amendment 133 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 3, paragraph 1, point a
Recommendation 3, paragraph 1, point a
a) "companies" mean national and international companies and groups of companies employing at least 500 employees in the Union, as well as any company part of the group referred to above;
Amendment 163 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 4, paragraph 1
Recommendation 4, paragraph 1
1. Any restructuring operation shallmust be integrated into a long-term strategy that aims to ensure and strengthening the long- term sustainability and competitiveness of the company and job security.
Amendment 172 #
2. Long-term strategic planning shall include human resources, employment and skills objectives that focus on developing, on a permanent basis, the skills and competences of the workforce in order to increase the competitiveness of the company and its capacity of adaptation, as well as to increase the employabilityfacilitate transfers of employees and to managecreate scope for their internal and external mobility.
Amendment 183 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 5, paragraph 1
Recommendation 5, paragraph 1
1. Companies shall develop, in cooperation with employees' representatives and, where applicable, with public authorities and other relevant stake- holders, mechanisms that anticipate and plan for future employment and skills needs.
Amendment 191 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 5, paragraph 2, point a
Recommendation 5, paragraph 2, point a
a) mechanisms for the long-term planning of quantitative and qualitative employment and skills needs that are linked to innovation and development strategies and that take into account the foreseeable evolution of employment and skills, both positive and negative; mechanisms to determine the current skill levels of individual employees;
Amendment 210 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 5, paragraph 3
Recommendation 5, paragraph 3
3. Every employee shall be offered a given number of hours of training per year to be determined by law or collective agreement. Any refusal to accept that offer by employees shall only be permitted on justified grounds.
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 5, paragraph 4 a (new)
Recommendation 5, paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. The practical implementing arrangements shall be laid down in an agreement concluded between the parties concerned.
Amendment 225 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 5, paragraph 5
Recommendation 5, paragraph 5
5. Dependent companies shall be informed of the mechanisms and plans provided for in paragraph 2. Their employees shall be covered by those mechanisms and plans upon the request of the dependent company, justified on the grounds that those mechanisms and plans are required or useful for their own adaptation and development. This shall not preclude dependent companies from developing their own mechanisms.
Amendment 229 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 6, paragraph 1
Recommendation 6, paragraph 1
Amendment 251 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 7, paragraph 1
Recommendation 7, paragraph 1
1. Anyll restructuring operation shall be subject to an early explanation and justification to all the relevant stakeholderslevant stakeholders, and in particular employees’ representatives, must be informed in writing of the reasons for any restructuring operation before any practical measures are taken, irrespective of whether the restructuring operation is to be carried out on the basis of either long- term strategic goals and requirements or short-term constraints.
Amendment 260 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 7, paragraph 2
Recommendation 7, paragraph 2
2. The dialogue provided for in paragraph 1 shall include the justification of the choice of the measures envisaged, the description of the individual measures, the impact of the measures envisaged on the employees and the company’s legal and financial situation, the products involved and the scope and time scale of the measures. The dialogue shall also cover measures such as outsourcing, the splitting of the company and the establishment of new domestic and foreign subsidiaries, in order to achieve the objectives and of other possible options, in the light of all the interests concerned.
Amendment 261 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 7, paragraph 2 a (new)
Recommendation 7, paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Employees’ representatives must be informed and consulted at a sufficiently early stage so that the management of the company or group of companies can still respond to proposals made by those representatives and alter their plans and decisions. Employees’ representatives must not be presented with a fait accompli.
Amendment 267 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 7, paragraph 3
Recommendation 7, paragraph 3
3. Companies shall from the beginning inform the public authorities at the relevant level, in particular at local level, before practical restructuring measures are taken and involve them in the preparation of the restructuring process.
Amendment 273 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 7, paragraph 4 a (new)
Recommendation 7, paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. This provision shall not apply if comparable rules on the information and consultation of employees’ representatives are in force at national level.
Amendment 276 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 8, paragraph 1
Recommendation 8, paragraph 1
1. When the need to restructure occurs as a result of the need to preserve their competitiveness and long-term prosperity,management of a company or group of companies shall consider redundancies only as last resort and only after considering all possible alternative options and identifying and, where available, implementing supporting measuress decided to carry out a restructuring operation, all possible alternative options shall be considered and given priority in order to avoid redundancies or ensure that they are considered only as a last resort.
Amendment 283 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 8, paragraph 2, point c
Recommendation 8, paragraph 2, point c
(c) temporary or long-term working-time reduction or re- organisation;
Amendment 284 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 8, paragraph 2, point d
Recommendation 8, paragraph 2, point d
Amendment 299 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 8, paragraph 3
Recommendation 8, paragraph 3
3. When redundancies cannot be avoided or as part of the package to be implemented in the context of alternative options, companies shall make available to the employees concerned measures that aim to enhance their employability and help them to re-enter the labour market as quickly as possible. This rule shall be without prejudice to national rules on the protection of workers in general and workers made redundant in particular.
Amendment 305 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 9
Recommendation 9
9. The provisions of Recommendations 6 and 7 shall not apply to companies and employees covered by an agreement concluded at the relevant level and with the relevant parties on the procedures and mechanism for preparing, managing in a socially responsible way and minimising internal social costs of restructuring operations, provided that the agreement sets out arrangements more favourable than those provided for in this Directive.
Amendment 388 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 15, paragraph 2
Recommendation 15, paragraph 2
Amendment 391 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 15, conclusion part
Recommendation 15, conclusion part
Amendment 399 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 16, paragraph 1
Recommendation 16, paragraph 1
1. Member States shall provide for appropriate measures in the event of failure to comply with the Directive; in particular, they shall ensure that adequate penalties and administrative or judicial procedures are available to enable the obligations deriving from the Directive to be enforced.
Amendment 403 #
2. Member States shall provide that companies thatemployers who do not comply with the provisions resulting from the Directive shall repay any funding received over a period of 10 years and shall not benefit from any funding in provenance of European Union budget in the five-year period following a judicial decision recognising the breach.
Amendment 407 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 16, paragraph 2a (new)
Recommendation 16, paragraph 2a (new)
2a. Sanctions shall be proportionate, dissuasive and effective.
Amendment 412 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 16, paragraph 3
Recommendation 16, paragraph 3
3. Member States shall exclude from the benefit of public aidsthe companies referred to in paragraph 2 from the benefit of public aids and contractual relationships funded from the national budgets during the same period the companies referred to in paragraph 2.
Amendment 414 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 16, paragraph 3 a (new)
Recommendation 16, paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. No measures linked to the planned restructuring may be taken by the management of the undertaking or group of undertakings as long as the consultation and discussions with employees' representatives have not been properly carried out. Member States shall ensure that interim legal protection measures may be taken.
Amendment 417 #
Proposal for a recommendation
Recommendation 16, paragraph 4
Recommendation 16, paragraph 4
4. Notwithstanding paragraphs 2 and 3, nothing shall preclude the use of funds from the general budget of the European Union and from national budgets for the direct benefit of the employees of the companies referred to in those paragraphs whose workplaces are concerned.