Fixed-term contract staff to get new rights

Date: 25/02/1999

By Simon Coss

NEW EU legislation to protect the rights of the estimated 17 million Europeans now working on fixed-term contracts looks set to be agreed before the summer.

The European Trade Union Confederation is expected to adopt a draft version of the law at the next meeting of its executive committee in mid-March.

The proposed legislation was drawn up by the ETUC and the EU's two other 'social partners' - private employers' federation UNICE and the CEEP, representing public sector bosses - under the Union's social dialogue procedure. It has already been approved by UNICE and the CEEP.

The ETUC believes that approval by its executive will amount to little more than a rubber-stamping exercise. Once that is completed, the text will be passed on to the European Commission, where it will be converted into a formal legislative proposal.

This will then be presented to the EU's social affairs ministers, probably at their meeting on 25 May, who need to approve the proposal by a qualified majority in order for it to become law.

The basic aim of the move is to prevent employers from abusing the rights of their staff by taking on people on a series of short-term contracts rather than offering them a full-time post with no time-limit attached.

The proposed law is fairly loose and leaves room for interpretation by EU governments. National legislation, says the text, should require objective reasons for the renewal of contracts, stipulate the maximum length of such contracts, or limit the number of times they are renewed.

Negotiations leading up to the deal lasted ten months. It is only the third to be reached using the social dialogue system since it was introduced under the 1992 Maastricht Treaty. The two previous accords cover parental leave and part-time workers.