EU worker consultation plan put on hold

Date: 11/03/1999

By Simon Coss

PLANS to strengthen the rights of millions of employees across the EU have been quietly shelved by the German presidency.

Bonn officials say a European Commission proposal designed to ensure that workers in firms operating in only one member state are fully consulted when their employers are planning major restructuring operations such as factory closures or mass redundancies is "not a priority".

They add that the proposal on 'information and consultation at national level' will not even be discussed by EU governments during Germany's six-month presidency unless "other important issues" are dealt with first.

Key among these is a plan put forward in 1997 by former Belgian Commissioner Etienne Davignon to enable firms to set up as pan-European companies. Union governments have been trying to agree on a European Company Statute for over 30 years, but a deal seems as far away as ever.

This means the consultation proposal is highly unlikely to see the light of day again before July, and only then if the incoming Finnish presidency shows more enthusiasm for it than Bonn has.

European employers' federation UNICE has always argued that there is no need for EU-level legislation on the rights of workers in national companies. The organisation's social affairs director Thérèse de Liedekerke this week welcomed signs that the issue had been put on the back burner. "This shows that there are at least some people who share our ideas," she claimed.

But supporters of the move insist it is far from dead. They argue that it will benefit from imminent changes in EU employment law which will enter into force with the Amsterdam Treaty, probably at the end of June.

The treaty will give the European Parliament greater powers to force governments to accept its changes to proposed labour laws, and the institution's rapporteur on the issue is calling for the Commission's original proposal to be strengthened.

Italian Democratic Left MEP Fiorella Ghilardotti argues that the proposed new rules should apply to all companies employing more than 20 people, and not 50 as the Commission has proposed.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) also insists that new EU-wide rules are needed. "Current Community law is fragmented and national law can be deficient," said ETUC confederal secretary Willy Bushak.

Officially, the Commission has expressed concern over the Parliament's move to lower the employee threshold, arguing that this would make an already unpopular proposal even less attractive to EU governments.

Privately, however, sources close to the Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn are pinning their hopes on the Parliament to deliver a tougher measure. "A 20-employee threshold was what we originally wanted," said one.