35 Amendments of Özlem DEMIREL related to 2023/2866(RSP)
Amendment 1 #
Citation 4 a (new)
– having regard to the resolution of the European Parliament of 14 January 2014 on effective labour inspections as a strategy to improve working conditions in Europe,
Amendment 6 #
Recital A
A. whereas, in 2021, there were about 10 million EU citizens of working age living in another Member State3 ; whereas the number of non-EUthird country nationals living and working in the EU has increased in recent years; whereas, in 2022, 9.93 million non- EU citizens were employed in the EU labour market, corresponding to 5.1 % of the total working age population4 ; whereas third country nationals do not fall yet under the scope of the European Labour Authority even the situations and problems are similar to EU citizens; _________________ 3 European Commission, ‘Annual Report on Intra-EU Labour Mobility 2022’, Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, 2022. 4 European Commission, ‘Statistics on migration to Europe’, May 2023.
Amendment 12 #
Recital C
C. whereas labour mobility creates economic growth and benefits for the whole EU andoften situations in which workers suffer from exploitative work relations and bad working conditions, lacking information about labour rights and applicable collective agreements and often because of missing language skills in the whole EU; whereas carrying out services in the EU offers opportunities for workers and undertakings into misuse the single market for social dumping; whereas ensuring failabour mobility and fair based on the principle of equal pay for equal work and not based on wage-competition remainsis still a challenge as a result of the 27 different labour market regimes within national regulations and practices and low santions; whereas EU legislation must beis often not duly implemented and enforced in all Member States; because of the lacking national and cross-border labour inspections;
Amendment 21 #
Recital D
D. whereas the European Pillar of Social Rights, proclaimed in Gothenburg in 2017, sets out 20 principles and establishes a social rulebook towards a strong, social Europe that is fair and inclusive; whereas equal rights and opportunities and access to the labour market, fair working conditions and social protection and inclusion are cornerstones of the EU anchored in the Treaties;
Amendment 22 #
Recital E
E. whereas national enforcement authorities, such as labour and social security inspectorates, and social partners involved in labour and social security inspections, struggle to effectively enforce national and EU law, especially in cross- border situations; whereas effective enforcement requires structured cooperation and information exchanges between Member States and all relevant stakeholders; Member States need to provide their inspectorates with the necessary means to carry out their tasks at national level and in particular because the cooperation with European Labour Authority (ELA) creates new tasks on top which requires new resources and capacities which could affect in particular smaller Member States;
Amendment 27 #
Recital F
F. whereas the European Labour Authority (ELA) was established with the aim of facilitating fair mobility and effective enforcement of labour rights: whereas cross-border cooperation and the exchange of information between Member States, supporting fair and well- functioning labour markets and welfare systems, and ensuring fair competition in the single markethould be facilitated by ELA as well as enforcement of labour law and carrying out joint and concerted labour inspection, supporting just and well- functioning labour markets and welfare systems, and ensuring the protection of workers in the single market which allows competition on good products but not on wages and working conditions;
Amendment 30 #
Recital F a (new)
Amendment 33 #
Recital G
G. whereas, based on its founding regulation, ELA carries out several tasks: facilitating access to information for individuals and employSocial Partners on labour mobility, supporting Member States in promoting cross-border job matching and coordinating the European Employment Services (EURES), facilitating cooperation and the exchange of information between Member States, coordinating and supporting concerted and joint inspections, carrying out analyses and risk assessments on issues related to cross-border labour mobility, supporting Member States with capacity building in the field of labour mobility and tackling undeclared work, and mediating disputes between Member States on the application of relevant EU law;
Amendment 35 #
Recital H
H. whereas ELA has not yet reached its full operational potential; whereas ELA’s activities are restricted due to the voluntary nature of the cooperation and participation of Member States and the limited rights to request and process data of the affected workers and other means like tachographs; whereas the legal framework of the authority prevents it from carrying out investigations and inquries on its own initiative or dealing with labour migration from non-EUthird country countries;
Amendment 42 #
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas the purpose of the revision clause of the founding regulation is to modify the mandate and not only to do an ex-post analysis of the work since 2019;
Amendment 44 #
Recital H b (new)
Amendment 45 #
Recital I
I. whereas the European Banking Authority was given the mandate of carrying out investigations on its own initiative; whereas some European agencies, such as Europol, have access to the database of the Internal Market Information (IMI) System and are allowed to process personal data; whereas the European Labour Authority is lacking similar rights;
Amendment 47 #
Recital J
J. whereas social partners may bringcould inform ELA about cross-border cases towith the attention of ELApurpose of initiate cross-border inspections; whereas the timely, systematic and structural involvement of EU, sectoral and national social partners is indispensable in improving the effectiveness of ELA;
Amendment 49 #
Recital J a (new)
J a. Whereas ELA could be informed about cross-border law breaches not only after the exhaustion of national remedies;
Amendment 50 #
Recital J b (new)
J b. whereas the procedures how to involve the social partners in the procedures is often not clarified;
Amendment 51 #
Recital J c (new)
J c. whereas the analyses and surveys are often carried out by external contractors for ELA; whereas this external transfer of important tasks hinders the necessary continuity to build up expertise and it endangers the independence of the European Labour Authority;
Amendment 52 #
Recital K
K. whereas by 1 August 2024, and every five years thereafter, the Commission shall assess ELA’s performance in relation to its objectives, mandate and tasks in compliance with Article 40 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1149; whereas the evaluation of ELA should, in particular, assess whether there is a need to modify its mandate and the scope of its activities, including the expansion of its scope to cover sector-specific needs in particular in the most affected sectors such as construction, transport and agriculture; whereas the evaluation should also explore further synergies and opportunities to streamline with other agencies in the area of employment and social policy;
Amendment 55 #
Recital K a (new)
K a. whereas the evaluation should further explore in cases of crimes and the involvement of organised crime for example in the construction sector regular cooperation and exchange with Europol, Eurojust and in cases where European subsidies are involved with EPPO;
Amendment 56 #
Recital L
L. whereas in its resolution of 11 May 2023 on a roadmap towards a social Europe – two years after the Porto Social Summit, Parliament underlined the importance of a well-functioning and efficient ELA; whereas Parliament has already called on the Commission to make use of the opportunity presented by the forthcoming evaluation to submit a legislative proposal to review the scope of ELA’s founding regulation and allow it to realise its full potential, especially concerning ELA’s inquiry and investigation powers;
Amendment 66 #
Paragraph 2
2. Calls for ELA’s mandate to be substantially strengthened in order to allow it to investigate alleged breaches orgurantee to start inquires and to investigate alleged breaches of workers´ rights, lacking enforcement and non- application of EU law and to initiate and conduct own inspections on its own initiative; stresses the need to keep national competent authorities and social partners following national laws and practices informed of any ELA investigation in their jurisdiction and to ensure that national competent authorities and social partners following national law and practices of the Member States provide ELA with any information that it considers necessary for its investigation, without delay;
Amendment 70 #
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2 a. Calls for the European Labour Authority (ELA) to become a powerful tool to tackle fraud and breaches of workers rights in mobile work with effective cross-border inspections and to inform about good and bad examples in the sectors and in the field of labour law and to issue risk assessment in particualar on the most affected sectors;
Amendment 71 #
Paragraph 2 b (new)
2 b. States that in some Member States labour inspections are carried out by Social Partners. Stresses that the autonomy of the Social Partners needs to be guaranteed at all levels and at all steps of the procedure;
Amendment 72 #
Paragraph 2 c (new)
Amendment 73 #
Paragraph 2 d (new)
2 d. Calls the Commission and the Member States to take all necessary steps that labour mobility is no longer a business model in the Single Market on fraudulent construction of legal and unlegal instruments on cross-border and mobile work like Posting of Workers, Temporary Agency Work, Intra- Corporate Transfer, Seasonal Work with EU-workers and third-country nationals, letter box companies and subcontracting- chains based on wage competition, precarious working conditions, undeclared work and bogus-self- employment;
Amendment 74 #
Paragraph 2 e (new)
2 e. Calls on the Member States to enforce the national and EU labour law effective and treat breaches of workers´ rights seriously, especially in the field of labour mobility and to allow Trade Unions to go before the court on behalf of workers, especially of mobile workers and to ensure that workers receive the withheld wages and remunerations and compensation, ensure that social security contributions are paid since the fraud or withheld have started, establish a system of penalties and criminal law sanctions that employers are deterred to break the law, establish a European list of employers and companies where breaches of mobile labour law is registered;
Amendment 75 #
Paragraph 3
3. Recalls that the scope of ELA is limited to the EU acts mentioned in its founding regulation; notes, however, that the authority is often confronted with sector-specific problems and labour mobility issues related to non-EU nationalsthird country nationals to whom the relevant labour legislation for third country workers is applicable; calls, therefore, for its scope to be expanded to include non-EUthird country nationals, to better support Member States in the application of relevant EU law such as Seasonal Workers Directive, Intra- corporate Transfer Directive and Employers´ Sanctions Directive and to explicitly take up sector-specific legislation, for example, in the transportconstruction, transport and agriculture sector;
Amendment 83 #
Paragraph 4
4. Highlights the need to ensure adequate follow-up on concerted andrecord breaches of workers' rights and the exact details on unpaid wages and unpaid social securtity contributions and to be involved from the beginning to the end of a procedure of cases which have led to joint inspections supported or facilitated by ELA; calls for effective procedures in order to ensure that detected breaches of national and EU law in the area of labour mobility are properly addressed through administrative or legal procedures in the Member States; underlines that ELA should be able to support affected workers and Member State's authorities to bring detected breaches in front of a court of the concerned Member State; stresses that cases brought to its attention by social partner organisations shall be thoroughly pursued by ELA; highlights that social partners should be able to request joint or concerted inspections by ELA and should receive a comprehensive justification in the event that the authority rejects a request;
Amendment 90 #
Paragraph 5
5. Calls for the timely, systematic and structural involvement of EU, sectoral and national social partners to improve the effectiveness of ELA; calls for a clarification of the procedures in this regard; calls on national competent authorities to cooperate more closely with their national social partners due to the fact that they are experts on their sectors and labour rights and have the necessary information in this regard;
Amendment 99 #
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Stresses that ELA needs sufficient resources and capacities with own staff to carry out its tasks in particular inspections in the field to detect breaches of workers´ rights, lacking enforcement and application of law, including workers from third countries;
Amendment 101 #
Paragraph 7
7. Notes the increase in workers from non-EUthird countries entering the EU labour market, who often find themselves in precarious working conditions; underlines that ELA should be empowered to address the situation of non-EU national because they are usually even more vulnerable compared with mobile workers within the EU; underlines that ELA shall have the competences to address the situation of third country nationals in the field of labour law and labour migration law like Seasonal workers from third countries, Employers Sanction Directives and that close cooperation with Member States and social partners is needed in this regard; points out that Member States could benefit from ELA’s ability to provide a clear overview of the migration flowmoves of non-EUthird country workers; stresses that ELA should be ablehave the rights to collect and access data related to non-EUthird country nationals and support Member States to better enforce existing labour mobility legislation for the non-EUthird country nationals working in the single marketwithin the EU;
Amendment 110 #
Paragraph 8 a (new)
8 a. Calls for clarifying of the procedures on the involvement of the social partners on all levels in cross- border cases, as ELA is not the remedy of last resort on breaches of workers´ rights like laid down in the guidelines of cross- border inspections;
Amendment 115 #
Paragraph 9
9. Calls for a clear provisionright allowing ELA to process sensitive and personal data related to investigations and operational analyses; considers it importantalls for the competence that ELA have access to the IMI System and other relevant databases; stresses that ELA also needs to have access to all national data relevant for its work, including findings from inspections or enforcement activities by Member States;
Amendment 116 #
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9 a. Calls for the competences to request data related to cross-border inspections of affected workers and means, for example tachographs similar to the Banking Authority;
Amendment 118 #
Paragraph 9 b (new)
9 b. Calls for expanding the cooperation in cases of crimes and the involvement of organised crime for example in the construction sector regarding the exchange of information with Europol, Eurojust and in cases where European subsidies are affected with EPPO;
Amendment 119 #
Paragraph 10
10. Notes that the high proportion of seconded national experts (SNEs) in ELA brings significant additional challenges to its operations in the medium and long term; recalls that SNEs only have temporary assignments, which may contribute to institutional inconsistency and jeopardise operational continuity when inspectorates are not carry out independent and neutral; calls, therefore, for the conversion of a sufficient number of SNE posts to permanent posts and to provide sufficient resources to reach this objective and to contribute to realise as many as possible cross-border inspections;