Brussels, 08/03/2007
The Tripartite Social Summit takes place each year in advance of the Spring European Council on growth and jobs. Topics on the agenda for the meeting between the social partners, the European Commission, the German EU Presidency, and Portugal and Slovenia (future Presidencies) include flexicurity, knowledge and innovation, better regulation, and energy and climate change.
Topping the ETUC's priorities is the need to reach a socially acceptable definition of flexicurity that gives as much weight to human and social development as to the needs of business. The ETUC calls for:
1. An end to the growth in precarious jobs, which are bad not only for workers but also for the labour market and the economy. They undermine working conditions, health and safety, generate poverty wages and damage social cohesion. Member States must commit themselves to creating secure, good quality work.
2. Better work organisation, to create flexible, participatory working environments that allow for a balance between work and home life and offer lifelong learning opportunities to boost workers' skills.
3. No cuts in employment protection legislation, which, far from being an obstacle to a dynamic labour market, can favour investment in human capital and innovation.
4. Improved social welfare systems, providing greater security to the 14 million European workers who change jobs each year.
5. Social dialogue and collective bargaining to give workers a strong voice in labour market reform. The full involvement of the social partners is crucial to successfully defining flexicurity.
Yet by contrast, the EU's recently adopted Joint Employment Report finds that facilities to combine work and family life are inadequate and that adult participation in lifelong learning has stagnated or fallen in 20 Member States. “It is time for governments to start taking these issues seriously,” said John Monks. “The forthcoming Commission Communication on flexicurity should set standards to guarantee job quality and career development, equipping workers with the skills they need to handle industrial restructuring.”
The ETUC rejects the idea that labour market reform is about rolling back social legislation and weakening worker protection. It is calling for a greater involvement of the social partners (employers and trade unions) at all levels - especially national - in implementing the EU's Lisbon Strategy for growth and jobs.
On energy and climate change, the ETUC will be pushing EU leaders to adopt bold policies to protect jobs and guarantee universal access to energy supply through public accountability in the sector, and to target major cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.
