Employment and social policies: a framework for investing in quality, June 2001

On 20 June, at their weekly meeting, European Commissioners adopted a Communication on 'job quality' and living standards in the European Union. Under the proposal, Member States are requested to create conditions for the promotion of jobs which are better-paid, better-skilled, safer, healthier, more accessible and which are supported by 'active' welfare systems. 'Job quality' will be assessed on the basis of two broad groups of indicators: job characteristics and work environment / labour market characteristics.

Simultaneously, the Commission announced the first meeting of the High Level Task Force on Skills and Mobility, whose role is to identify barriers to the development of pan European labour markets and suggest how they can be overcome.

In a further development - with implications for employment in an enlarged Union - the Commission welcomed the adoption by the Candidate Countries' of the eEurope+ Action Plan, intended to 'embrace the challenges of the knowledge-based economy through the use of Information Society technologies and tools.'

Background

The Communication adopted by the Commission, Employment and social policies: a framework for investing in quality, June 2001 [pdf] (COM (2001) 313) 'aims to take forward the Social Policy Agenda commitment to promote quality in employment and social policy.' It is a direct response to a request made by leaders at the March 2001 Stockholm European Council for the Commission to 'develop indicators on quality in work and [to] make quantitative indicators more accurate [...] in time for the Laeken European Council in 2001'. (It was also decided that job quality should be included as a general objective in the 2002 employment guidelines).

The issue of quality in relation to employment and to social policy has been raised a number of times over recent years. In May 1996, the then Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Padraig Flynn, said: 'Let us have good quality jobs and more of them'. Former Commission President Jacques Santer spoke, in January 1998, of needing 'far more fast growing services companies - high tech, information-society driven companies. That is the future. That is where many jobs can be created. Good quality jobs.'

The Union's current employment policy is firmly based on decisions taken at the Lisbon European Council [pdf] in March 2000, at which leaders agreed that this decade should see Europe 'become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion.'

(In February 2000, just prior to the Lisbon Summit, the Commission presented a Communication on Strategies for jobs in the Information Society).

The Feira European Council in June 2000 confirmed the importance of the Lisbon strategy and also approved the eEurope Action Plan, Objective 2 of which focused on 'Investing in people and skills' in the knowledge-based economy (the Action Plan followed the December 1999 launch of eEurope itself).

Also in June 2000, the Commission adopted the Social Policy Agenda [pdf], which stated:

'Quality of work includes better jobs and more balanced ways of combining working life with personal life. This is to the advantage of the individual, the economy and the society. It implies better employment policies, fair remuneration, an organisation of work adapted to the needs of both companies and individuals. It is based on high skills, fair labour standards and decent levels of occupational health and safety and includes facilitating occupational and geographical mobility.'

In September 2000 the European Commissioner responsible for Employment and Social Affairs, Anna Diamantopoulou, noted that the Agenda 'builds on three basic principles:

The first is that increased living standards widely shared is the most fundamental objective of the European Union. It is enshrined in the European Treaty. It is endorsed in the European Council. It remains Europe's over-riding goal.

The second is that social policy is not a cost but a positive economic and social investment. An essential part of the upward progress of modern societies.

The third is that quality matters. Whether it concerns employment, social spending, industrial relations. Better jobs means better workers. Better workers mean better products and services.'

The Social Policy Agenda was endorsed in December 2000 by the Nice European Council, which confirmed that:

'Quality of training, quality in work, quality of industrial relations and quality of social policy as a whole are essential factors if the European Union is to achieve the goals it has set itself regarding competitiveness and full employment.'

(The Nice European Council also confirmed the adoption of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, April 2001. Two Articles in the Charter are particularly relevant in this context: Article 31 on fair and just working conditions, and Article 34 on social security and social assistance).

In a speech in February 2001 entitled Quality is the link between competitiveness and cohesion, Commissioner Diamantopoulou stated:

'Quality is about values and aspirations. It is a core objective of the Union. At the heart of our concept of Europe, and the European social model.

It underpins the objectives of the Treaty. With its emphasis on rising living standards, widely shared. Building a high value-added economy. Respecting fundamental social rights. Developing sustainable policies.

Quality is a unifying objective of European policy embracing the economy, the workplace, the home, society at large.

It links high quality conditions at work, to high productivity output. It links effective social policies with strong and clear economic benefits.

It is the link between competitiveness and cohesion.'

A framework for investing in quality

Employment and social policies: a framework for investing in quality, June 2001 [pdf] restates the case for quality and offers a definition of 'quality in work', which it says:

'means not only looking at, or taking account of, the existence of paid employment but also looking at the characteristics of that employment. It is a relative and a multi-dimensional concept. In its broadest definition, it involves taking into account:

- the objective characteristics related to employment, both the wider work environment and the specific characteristics of the job;

- worker characteristics - the characteristics the employee brings to the job;

- the match between worker characteristics and job requirements;

- and the subjective evaluation (job satisfaction) of these characteristics by the individual worker.'

The document also proposes a framework for assessing the quality of jobs, based on two Dimensions: 'Characteristics of the job itself' (Intrinsic job quality; Skills, life-long learning and career development), and 'The work and wider labour market context' (Gender equality; Health and safety at work; Flexibility and Security; Inclusion and access to the labour market; Work organisation and work-life balance; Social dialogue and worker involvement; Diversity and non-discrimination; Overall economic performance and productivity).

The framework 'provides a general means of pursuing the central focus of the Social Policy Agenda on quality in all areas of employment and social policy.' The Commission also proposes undertaking a series of 'quality reviews' covering the areas of social policy addressed in the Social Policy Agenda.

The proposed indicators will be discussed at the Laeken European Council in December 2001. The Belgian Presidency will 'pay special attention to the development of the European social model' and will put a special emphasis on quality of work.

At the Stockholm European Council in March 2001, Belgium was given the task of 'refining and establishing the qualitative as well as the quantitative employment indicators'. The Presidency plans to initiate improvements in employment statistics and to include work quality as a criterion when assessing the National Action Programmes for employment.

European social model

The Communication also outlines the characteristics of the European Social Model, and compares and contrasts the situation in the EU and the United States. The distinguishing feature of the European model is stated to be not the level of expenditure, but the way in which resources are collected and spent. In the EU, funding for employment and social policy is mainly public; in the US it depends more on private contributions. Benefits seem to be more evenly distributed in Europe than in the US, 'where, for example, 40 per cent of the population does not have access to primary health care, even though spending per head is actually higher as a proportion of GDP than it is in Europe.' Both spend some 5% of GDP on education, but the US has a far higher illiteracy rate than Europe.

It seems clear that the EU does not want to pursue economic growth and its associated employment opportunities at the expense of 'social cohesion'. The Presidency Conclusions of the Lisbon European Council [pdf] stated:

'Investing in people and developing an active and dynamic welfare state will be crucial both to Europe's place in the knowledge economy and for ensuring that the emergence of this new economy does not compound the existing social problems of unemployment, social exclusion and poverty.'

The Social Policy Agenda [pdf] itself states:

'Quality of social policy implies a high level of social protection, good social services available to all people in Europe, real opportunities for all, and the guarantee of fundamental and social rights. Good employment and social policies are needed to underpin productivity and to facilitate the adaptation to change. They also will play an essential role towards the full transition to the knowledge-based economy.'

Speaking in September 2000 Commissioner Diamantopoulou emphasised that:

'... our European social agenda is about much more than social support and social transfers. It is about the creation of competitive and cohesive societies in Europe. Dynamic economies, developed social systems, and high levels of quality employment are mutually re-enforcing. This is the road to success.'

A few months later, in February 2001, the Commissioner stated:

'Quality is at the heart of the political agenda. It reflects our desire for a better life. For each and every one of us.

The political task is to match those expectations with practical actions and policies. [...]

While capital and technology is highly mobile around the world, people and their societies are not.

Our comparative advantage is in our people, not our access to capital or technology.'

Speaking at the launch of Employment and social policies: a framework for investing in quality, June 2001 [pdf], Commissioner Diamantopoulou said that quality

'is a core, unifying objective of the EU at the heart of our concept of Europe and the European social model. 'Quality' reflects our common aim, not just to defend minimum standards at work and beyond, but actively to promote rising standards and thus ensure a more equitable sharing of progress. But 'quality' of jobs, training, social dialogue - is also a productive factor, not a cost factor when the economic, employment and social policy mix is right'.

Further information within European Sources Online:

European Sources Online: In Focus

• European Council, Lisbon, 22-23 March 2000
• European Council, Nice, 7-11 December 2000 / Treaty of Nice
• Treaty of Nice signed 26 February 2001. What next for the European Union?, February 2001
• European Council, Stockholm, 23-24 March 2001

Further information can be seen in these external links:
(long-term access cannot be guaranteed)

European Commission: Employment and Social Affairs DG

• Home page
• European Employment Strategy
• Social Security and Social Integration

European Commission: Information Society DG

• Home page
• eEurope+

SCADPlus

• Union Policy: Social Action Programmes: Employment
• Union Policy: Social Action Programmes: Encouraging high labour standards as part of a competitive Europe
• Union Policy: Social Action Programmes: Social policy and social protection

European Commission: Press and Communication Service

	Home page
	03.05.96:	Padraig Flynn: Society and jobs in Europe and the US - the choices we have to make? (SPEECH/96/109)
	29.01.98:	Jacques Santer: 'The European Union and the world in 1998' (SPEECH/98/17)
	27.01.00:	Anna Diamantopoulou, Conference on Jobs (SPEECH/00/22)
	07.03.00:	Anna Diamantopoulou, New social trends in Europe (SPEECH/00/72)
	12.09.00:	Anna Diamantopoulou: The European Dimension (SPEECH/00/298)
	24.01.01:	Anna Diamantopoulou, Investing in our social and economic future: quality matters (SPEECH/01/20)
	22.02.01:	Anna Diamantopoulou: Quality is the link between competitiveness and cohesion (SPEECH/01/80)
	22.03.01:	Anna Diamantopoulou: Address to Social Dialogue Summit (SPEECH/01/215)

Belgium: EU Presidency website

• Home page
• Priorities note

Eric Davies
KnowEurope Researcher
Compiled: 22 June 2001

On 20 June 2001 the European Commission adopted a Communication on 'job quality' and living standards in the European Union.