29 Amendments of Jordi CAÑAS related to 2023/2536(RSP)
Amendment 1 #
Citation 3
— having regard to Articles 12, 15, 16, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30, 31 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union,
Amendment 3 #
Citation 7
— having regard to International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention No 98 concerning the right to organise and collective bargaining, No 135 concerning protection and facilities to be afforded to workers’ representatives in the undertaking (the Workers’ Representatives Convention) and No 154 concerning the Collective Bargaining Convention,
Amendment 4 #
Citation 8 a (new)
— having regard to the European Social Partners’ framework agreement on digitalisation,
Amendment 5 #
Citation 8 b (new)
Amendment 6 #
Citation 16 a (new)
— having regard to the Commission proposal for a Council Recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the European Union (COM(2023) 38 final),
Amendment 19 #
Recital A
A. whereas social partnershipdialogue and collective bargaining between trade unions and representatives of employers at national level and social dialogue atcompany, sectoral, national and 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 better and more inclusive EU growth;
Amendment 38 #
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas there is a need to expand collective bargaining coverage in particular in SMEs and to the solo self- employed, as defined by national law or practice, who often experience a lack of representation; whereas the Commission guidelines on the application of Union competition law to collective agreements regarding the working conditions of solo self-employed persons provide much needed clarity that certain self-employed people can negotiate collectively to improve their working conditions without breaching EU competition rules;
Amendment 48 #
Recital D
D. whereas democracy at work plays a key role in strengthening human rights in the workplace and society, in particularfor example when workers’ representatives, including trade unions, are actively involved in businesses’ due diligence processes; whereas sustainable corporate governance can only be achieved with employee involvement; whereas workemployee involvement at the appropriate level contributes to sustainable corporate governance; whereas social partners’ voices armust be a key component of EU initiatives to ensure sustainable andility, democratic corporate governance and due diligence on human rights, includingcy and a fair transition, with regard to labour, and on climate change and the environment, as well as EU initiatives to reduce the use of unfair practices, such as labour exploitation and unfair competition in the single market;
Amendment 55 #
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 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; 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, 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 59 #
Recital F
F. whereas some 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 employee as well as limitations on the social partners’ freedom to autonomously negotiate and find compromises through collective bargaining; whereas the latter can manifest not only through explicit restrictions to social dialogue itself but through other types of legislation that limits the social partners’ room for manoeuvre in autonomous collective bargaining; whereas in accordance with Article 9 of the ESF+ regulation, Member States must ensure meaningful participation of the social partners in the delivery of employment, education and social inclusion policies supported by the ESF+ strand under shared management; whereas all Member States must allocate an appropriate amount of ESF+ resources, and where they have received related country-specific recommendations this shall be at least 0.25%, to capacity building of the social partners, including in the form of training, networking measures, and strengthening of the social dialogue, and to activities jointly undertaken by the social partners;
Amendment 68 #
Recital G
G. whereas collective bargaining refers to all negotiations that take place according to national law and practice in each Member State between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations on the one hand, and one or more trade unions on the other, to determine working conditions and terms of employment; whereas a trade union is understood to be a group of workers formed to further and defend workers’ interests, under national law and/or practice; whereas an employers’ organisation is an organisation whose membership consists of individual employers, other associations of employers or both, constituted to further and defend the interests of its members, under national law and/or practice; whereas in line with the Workers’ Representatives Convention, which has been ratified by 24 Member States, workers’ representatives can be persons who are: (i) recognised as such under national law or practice, whether or not they are trade union representatives, namely, representatives designated or elected by trade unions or by members of such unions; or (ii) elected representatives, namely, representatives who are freely elected by the workers of the undertaking in accordance with relevant provisions of national laws or regulations or of collective agreements and whose functions do not include activities that are recognised as the exclusive prerogative of trade unions in the country concerned; whereas when both trade union representatives and elected representative exists in the same undertaking, elected representatives should not to be used to undermine the position of the trade unions concerned or their representatives, in particular as regards collective bargaining ,which is the prerogative of the trade union;
Amendment 70 #
Recital G a (new)
G a. whereas in line with the Workers’ Representatives Convention, which has been ratified by 24 Member States, workers’ representatives can be persons who are: (i) recognised as such under national law or practice, whether or not they are trade union representatives, namely, representatives designated or elected by trade unions or by members of such unions; or (ii) elected representatives, namely, representatives who are freely elected by the workers of the undertaking in accordance with provisions of national laws or regulations or of collective agreements and whose functions do not include activities that are recognised as the exclusive prerogative of trade unions in the country concerned; whereas when both trade union representatives and elected representative exists in the same undertaking, elected representatives should not to be used to undermine the position of the trade unions concerned or their representatives and to encourage co-operation on all relevant matters between the elected representatives and the trade unions concerned and their representatives;
Amendment 72 #
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) technical capacity, (iii) access to relevant information to participate in social dialogue; (iiiv) a commitment from all parties to engage in social dialogue; (iv) respect for the fundamental rights of freedom of association and collective bargaining; and (vi) appropriate institutional support, (vii) adaptation to the digital age and promotion of collective bargaining in the new world of work; (viii) allowing independent social partners to negotiate and conclude collective agreements autonomously without undue political intervention;
Amendment 81 #
Recital I
I. whereas strong collective bargaining, in particular at sectoral or cross-industry level, contributes to quality jobs; whereas trade unions, workers’ representation and participation and collective bargaining coverage are essential for the enforcement of workers’ rights and can contribute to the proper functioning of companies; whereas action is neededone of the aims of social dialogue is to ensure a balance of bargaining power between employers and trade unions, which can be improved by strengthening democracy at work;
Amendment 88 #
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 equal; 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 bettera high standard of working conditions;
Amendment 98 #
Recital O
O. whereas it is necessary for social partners to adapt and expand their outreach in order to connect to workers engaging in for example non- standard forms of work or in new forms of employment suffer from, where such workers often experience a lack of representation; whereas the emergence of new forms of employment marequires a change of approach and mind-set amongst social partners to ensure that they remain open to, and can attract, workers with difficult for trade unions to recruit new memberserent employment contracts and statuses across all sectors such as solo self-employed or labour migrants; whereas it is crucial that this approach ensures inclusion and diversity in social partners’ membership and leadership, recognising that today’s world of work is globalised and intercultural;
Amendment 112 #
Paragraph 1 b (new)
1 b. Welcomes the Commission proposal for a Council recommendation on strengthening social dialogue in the EU; stresses that social dialogue at national and Union level needs to be further supported and that more efforts are needed to improve collective bargaining coverage and ensure workplaces are well-adapted to changes in the world of work in order to safeguard quality jobs as well as prevent social partners’ membership and organisational density from decreasing; regrets, however, that the proposal does not lay out any sustainable solutions for organising and financing sectoral social dialogue committees; calls on the Commission to maintain its logistical support for sectoral social dialogue committees and 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;
Amendment 113 #
Paragraph 1 c (new)
1 c. Stresses in particular the need to support national social partners to build capacity including through supportive measures such as training and provision of expertise and to adapt their activities to the digital age and explore new activities and measures to respond to the green and digital transitions as well as demographic change and new labour market conditions;
Amendment 114 #
Paragraph 1 d (new)
1 d. Recalls the importance of promoting gender equality and equal opportunities for all, including persons with disabilities and labour migrants in relation to representation as well as horizontally across all policy areas;
Amendment 121 #
Paragraph 3
3. Believes that freedom of assembly and association and workers’ rights to organise, to 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 institutionsCommission, the Member States and social partners respectively;
Amendment 125 #
Paragraph 4
4. Is concerned that the density of employers’ organisations and trade unions is declining across allmany Member States; warns that the decrease in collective bargaining coverage is not onpartly due to the decline in trade union density, but also toto some extent the lack of representation within employers’ organisation and employers’ lack of involvement and willingness to participate in collective bargainings; suggests that in order to turn this negative trend around and promote collective bargaining, a shift in approach is needed that adapts to the new realities in the world of work and continues to promote a culture of compromise and collaboration but also inclusion and diversity; believes that one way for social partners to remain attractive to new members and thus increase organisational density, is to make sure their outreach is inclusive, socially sustainable and open-minded, including towards groups outside the traditional membership such as the solo self-employed or labour migrants including from third countries;
Amendment 136 #
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 key to a successful collective bargaining framework, provided employers and workers are able to choose freely which organisation(s) will represent them; stresses that such statutory recognition is open and transparent on the basis of objective representativeness criteria established in consultation with employers’ organisations and trade unions;
Amendment 144 #
Paragraph 7
7. CRecalls on the Commission and the Member States, along withat Member States’ collective bargaining coverage rates vary significantly owing to a number of factors, including national tradition and practice as well as historical contexts which must be taken into account while striving for progress towards higher collective bargaining coverage; encourages the social partners, to commit to reaching collective bargaining coverage of 90 % by 2030develop innovative approaches to increase collective bargaining coverage rates, including by extending memberships to all types of workers, including those with different employment contracts and statuses such as the solo self-employed; calls on the Commission and the Member States, to support the efforts of social partners in this regard through removing institutional and legal barriers to well- functioning collective bargaining, 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 171 #
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Stresses the need for the Commission and the Member States to improve the scope and relevance of data collection at Union and national level on social dialogue in particular collective bargaining; calls for comprehensive and comparable data, disaggregated by sector, to include inter alia the rate of solo self- employed covered by collective agreements, the number of collective agreements concerning measures to address the green and digital transitions, skills and labour market shortages and the profile of the workers covered by such agreements;
Amendment 181 #
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Recalls the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) Action Plan targets that at least 60% of all adults should participate in training annually and that at least 80% of those aged 16-74 should have basic digital skills; stresses the crucial role social partners can play in reaching these targets and addressing skills and labour shortages, particularly in regions most affected by the green and digital transitions; recalls that social partners should be consulted in tripartite discussions on reskilling, upskilling, VET and lifelong learning policies; encourages the social partners to address re- and up- skilling as well as digital skills and literacy through social dialogue on training policies;
Amendment 198 #
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Commission to strongly enforce the social clause in the existing EU Public Procurement Directive16and to revise the directive in order to further strengthen social clauses inwhich requires Member States to ensure that in the performance ofpublic contracts to requireeconomic operators and subcontractors to fullyrespect workers’right to collective bargaining and to set condicomply with applicable obligations forin 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 ields of environmental, social and labour law established by Union law, national law, collective agreements or by applicable international environmental, social and labour law provisions includingrespect for theright to organise andcollective bargaining; and calls for this revision to exempt all social and welfare services from procurement obligations and to establish a European exclusion mechanism to excludeon social partners to enhance their efforts in making sure that economic operators are bound bycollective agreements; calls on the Member States to make sure their judicial systems have sufficient capacity to exercise their authority and addressprimary contractors and subcontractors who have repeatedly engaged in unfair competition and tax fraud; 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 213 #
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 involvementMember States to ensure that companies’ respective corporate governance models take due account of environmental, social and economic development through governance practices and market presence and promote corporate governance practices that contribute to company sustainability, in a way that does not overthrow the functioning of those respective models and that takes into account the different sizes and sectors of companies;
Amendment 224 #
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Member States to ratify and implement all ILO core conventions, including particular 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 227 #
Draft motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to ensure the proper functioning of individual and collective labour dispute settlement systems, as recommended by various ILO conventions and recommendations in accordance with national law and/or practice, including conciliation, mediation and arbitration services with the agreement of both parties, 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 dismantlemaintain those services to guarantee a similar level of protection for all workers and employers within the national territory;