The European Parliament adopted by 444 votes to 179, with 20 abstentions, a legislative resolution on the proposal for a Council decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States.

The European Parliament welcomed the Commission’s proposal for updated employment guidelines for the Member States, in particular its strong focus on education and training, new technologies, artificial intelligence and algorithmic management and recent policy initiatives such as platform work, affordable housing and tackling labour and skills shortages. Members reiterated, with a view to strengthening democratic decision-making , their call to be involved in setting the integrated guidelines at Union level on an equal footing with the Council.

Parliament approved the proposal subject to amendments. It made a series of recommendations for the attention of Member States:

- develop a coordinated strategy for employment and in particular for the promotion of quality employment and improving working conditions, a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce, as well as labour markets that are inclusive, resilient, future-oriented and responsive to economic and demographic change;

- promote fair wages and decent working conditions , foster democracy at work, social dialogue and collective bargaining, protect workers´ rights, in order to enhance economic and social progress and upward convergence, support the green and digital transitions, strengthen the Union industrial base and achieve inclusive, competitive and resilient labour markets in the Union;

- take prevention and prompt intervention measures to reduce early school leaving , with a particular focus on students at risk. Such measures should include psychological support, mentoring, career guidance and extracurricular activities to foster students' interest and participation, to ensure inclusive and quality education for all;

- grant special attention to young people who are neither engaged in education nor in employment or training (NEETs) by promoting specific policies to reintegrate NEETs into the education system and the labour market through targeted training, mentoring, guidance and job placement programmes;

- mainstream gender equality policies in all phases of the economic governance;

- take measures to ensure wage transparency , implement monitoring policies and stimulate companies to implement equal pay action plans;

- put in place a package on quality employment including legislative initiatives on decent working conditions with regard to telework, the right to disconnect, and artificial intelligence (AI) at the workplace;

- revise the directives on public procurement to ensure they promote collective bargaining;

- adopt a ‘vision zero’ approach aiming to prevent work-related deaths , including the prevention of hazards to workers from extreme weather caused by climate change and psychosocial risks at the workplace;

- adopt a framework directive on minimum income schemes;

- increase the dedicated budget of the European Child Guarantee to at least EUR 20 billion;

- integrate climate change adaptation into social protection programmes and a framework for demand-driven direct employment initiatives to support labour-market inclusion of workers faced by labour market transformations or long-term unemployment;

- eliminate discrimination in all its forms, ensure gender equality and promote employment of young people and people over 50 years old ;

- ensure equal access and opportunities for all and eradicate poverty and social exclusion , with a special emphasis on vulnerable groups, namely children, persons with disabilities, single parents, ethnic minorities, such as Roma people, LGBTIQA+ people, people living in remote and rural areas and older people;

- take the necessary actions to help deliver affordable housing for all;

- encourage the adoption of measures to reduce existing purchasing power difference between regions and within Member States;

- pay particular attention to underpaid professions , for example teachers and other professionals in education, professionals in the social and healthcare sector, transport and agricultural workers;

- put in place pension reforms supported by policies that aim to reduce the gender pension gap, including by adequately valued periods of maternity and parental leave, and to promote active and healthy ageing and decent working conditions to ensure that workers can actually remain in employment until they reach the statutory retirement age.

The Committee on Employment and Social Affairs adopted, following the consultation procedure, the report by Li ANDERSSON (GUE/NGL, FI) on the proposal for a Council decision on guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States.

The report welcomed the Commission’s proposal for updated employment guidelines for the Member States, in particular its strong focus on education and training as well as new technologies, artificial intelligence and algorithmic management as well as recent policy initiatives such as platform work, affordable housing and tackling labour and skills shortages. Members reiterated, with a view to strengthening democratic decision-making , their call to be involved in setting the Integrated Guidelines at Union level on an equal footing with Council.

The committee approved the proposal subject to amendments.

Guideline No 5: Boosting the demand for labour

Members called on the Member States to:

- facilitate the hiring of people by businesses, significantly invest in the green transition, and foster vocational education and training, responsible entrepreneurship and genuine self-employment including among women, young people, older people and other disadvantaged groups;

- fully implement the Social Economy Action Plan and the Green Deal;

- address the impact of present and future crisis, including the intensifying impacts of climate change such as heatwaves, droughts or wildfires on the labour market.

Well-designed hiring and transition incentives, lifelong learning, VET, and upskilling and reskilling measures, developed in close cooperation with social partners, should be considered n order to support quality job creation and transitions throughout the working life, and to address labour and skill shortages.

National taxation should be supportive of job creation while ensuring that tax systems are progressive, and in line with climate and environmental objectives.

In order to avoid the offshoring of companies that have received European aid, Member stated that it is essential to review existing state aid rules and funding programmes and establish strategic solutions aimed at maintaining the industrial base within Europe.

Guideline 6: Enhancing labour supply and improving access to employment, lifelong acquisition of skills and competences

Members considered that the right to paid educational leave for professional purposes should be encouraged. They recalled that decent working conditions, comprising amongst others fair wages, standard employment contracts, access to social protection, lifelong learning opportunities, occupational health and safety, a good work-life balance, reasonable working time, worker’s representation, democracy at work and collective bargaining, play a crucial role in attracting and retaining skilled workers.

Member States should likewise ensure that labour migration does not result in a deterioration of existing working conditions for domestic workers. The adoption of an EU Talent Pool, combined with an ambitious transposition of the EU Blue Card Directive, could offer opportunities to tackle labour shortages across skill levels and sectors.

The various guidelines developed within the framework of the employment package of the European Strategy for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2023-2030 should be fully implemented in workplaces.

Guideline 7: Enhancing the functioning of labour markets and the effectiveness of social dialogue

Members insisted on ensuring the protection of labour rights, a high level of social protection and secure employment, inclusive recruitment, health and safety at work, as well as well-adapted working environments for all workers. At the same time, Member States should ensure a suitable environment for companies and employers to adapt to changes. Member States should fully implement EU occupational health and safety regulations, including binding occupational exposure limit values, in order to work towards reducing the number of fatal accidents at work and eliminating workplace cancer.

Moreover, at the same time, it also risks diluting boundaries between working time and private life, therefore highlighting a need for a directive on the right to disconnect.

Guideline 8: Promoting equal opportunities for all, fostering social inclusion and fighting poverty

Homelessness should be tackled specifically by promoting access to permanent housing (housing first approach) and the provision of enabling support services.

Members considered that pension reforms should be supported by policies that aim to reduce the gender pension gap, including by adequately valued periods of maternity and parental leave, and to promote active and healthy ageing and decent working conditions to ensure that workers can actually remain in employment until they reach the statutory retirement age. At the same time workers who wish to remain active after they have reached the retirement age should have the possibility to do so.

PURPOSE: adoption of guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States.

PROPOSED ACT: Council Decision.

ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the Council adopts the act after consulting the European Parliament but without being obliged to follow its opinion.

BACKGROUND: pursuant to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Member States are to regard their economic policies and promoting employment as a matter of common concern and shall coordinate their action within the Council. The Council is to adopt employment guidelines, specifying that they must be consistent with the broad economic policy guidelines.

In 2022, the guidelines were amended to align the text by retargeting of the narrative to the post-COVID-19 environment, bringing in more elements related to fairness in the green transition, reflecting recent policy initiatives and adding policy elements of particular relevance in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2023, they were again carried over, while adjusting the recitals to reflect the new EU headline and national targets on employment, skills and poverty reduction and recent initiatives. This year, the guidelines are updated to bring in more elements related to education and training, as well as new technologies, artificial intelligence and algorithmic management, and to reflect recent policy initiatives of particular relevance such as on platform work, affordable housing and tackling labour and skills shortages.

CONTENT: under the terms of the draft Council Decision, the guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States, are maintained for 2024 and must be taken into account by the Member States in their employment policies and reform programmes.

The revised ‘Employment Guidelines’ are the following:

Guideline 5 : Boosting the demand for labour,

Guideline 6 : Enhancing labour supply and improving access to employment, lifelong acquisition of skills and competences,

Guideline 7 : Enhancing the functioning of labour markets and the effectiveness of social dialogue,

Guideline 8 : Promoting equal opportunities for all, fostering social inclusion and fighting poverty.

The proposal includes the following clarifications:

- Member States and the Union must work towards developing a coordinated strategy for employment and, in particular, for promoting a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce and future-oriented labour markets responsive to economic change, with a view to achieving the objectives of full employment and social progress, balanced growth and a high level of protection and improvement of the quality of the environment;

- the Union must combat social exclusion and discrimination and promote social justice and protection, as well as equality between women and men, solidarity between generations and protection of the rights of the child;

- with a view to facilitating the ecological and digital transitions and achieving inclusive labour markets, Member States should promote quality education, training, future-oriented vocational education and training, and life-long upskilling and reskilling, as well as effective active labour market policies and improved career opportunities by strengthening the links between the education system and the labour market;

- the Union’s and Member States’ economic and employment policies should go hand in hand with Europe’s fair transition to a climate neutral, environmentally sustainable and digital economy , improve competitiveness, ensure adequate working conditions, foster innovation, promote social justice and equal opportunities and upward socio-economic convergence, as well as tackle inequalities and regional disparities;

- the EU and its Member States are to work together to effectively and proactively address those structural developments such as climate change and other environmental challenges, the need to ensure a fair ecological transition, a new shift towards energy independence, increased competitiveness of zero-net industries and the need to ensure Europe's open strategic autonomy, as well as digitalisation, artificial intelligence, increased teleworking, the platform economy and demographic change;

- coordinated strategic action at both EU and national level should stimulate sustainable investment and renew the commitment to reforms to strengthen sustainable and inclusive economic growth, quality job creation and productivity, provide adequate working conditions, increase social and territorial cohesion, foster upward socio-economic convergence and resilience, and promote fiscal responsibility;

- the European Pillar of Social Rights , with its accompanying Social Scoreboard, constitutes a reference framework to monitor the employment and social performance of Member States, to drive reforms and investments at national, regional and local level and to reconcile the ‘social’ and the ‘market’ in today’s modern economy, including by promoting the social economy;

- the EU headline targets for 2030 on employment (at least 78 % of the population aged 20-64 should be in employment), skills (at least 60 % of all adults should participate in training every year) and poverty reduction (at least 15 million fewer people at risk of poverty or social exclusion, including five million children), will help in monitoring progress towards the implementation of the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights as part of the policy coordination framework in the European Semester;

- reforms to the labour market, including national wage-setting mechanisms, should respect national practices of social dialogue and the autonomy of the social partners, with a view to providing fair wages that enable a decent standard of living and sustainable growth and upward socio-economic convergence;

- following the Russian invasion of Ukraine , temporary protection offers quick and effective assistance in European countries to displaced people fleeing the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and allows them to enjoy minimum rights across the Union that offer an adequate level of protection. Member States should involve social partners in the design, implementation and evaluation of policy measures aimed at addressing the employment and skills challenges, including the recognition of qualifications, stemming from the Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine;

- discrimination in all its forms should be tackled, gender equality ensured and employment of young people supported. Equal access and opportunities for all should be ensured and poverty and social exclusion, in particular that of children, persons with disabilities and the Roma people;

- for the 2021-2027 programming period, Member States should make full use of the European Social Fund Plus, the European Regional Development Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility and other Union funds, including the Just Transition Fund as well as the InvestEU.