UNICE talks on workers’ rights plan go into extra time

Date: 10/09/1998

By Simon Coss

THE European Commission has granted EU employers' federation UNICE yet more time to decide whether it wants to enter into discussions on drafting a new law on workers' rights.

Sources have confirmed that the Commission is prepared to wait for the outcome of a key meeting of UNICE's member organisations, scheduled for 16 October, before it decides what action to take.

In March, UNICE said it did not want to participate in talks with the EU's two other 'social partners' - the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and CEEP, which represents public sector employers - on drafting new EU legislation.

The measures to be discussed are designed to ensure workers in national companies are fully informed and consulted when their employers are planning major restructuring initiatives such as mass redundancies or factory closures. Social Affairs Commissioner Pádraig Flynn decided new rules were needed to complement existing laws covering multinational firms in the wake of the Renault car company's shock decision last year to close its profitable factory in Vilvoorde, Belgium.

Flynn reacted furiously to UNICE's initial decision not to enter into talks and said his officials would begin work by July on a deal to be imposed on all the social partners.

However, UNICE appears to have softened its stance. Before the summer break, newly elected president Georges Jacobs suggested that he might be able to convince the organisation's member federations to negotiate.

At this news, Commission officials made it clear they would hold off publishing the text of proposals until the end of this month, a deadline which has now been extended until after the 16 October meeting.

“If there is going to be the possibility of negotiation, then no one's going to strangle them over the question of two weeks,” said one Flynn aide. “It is important that they have this meeting. Giving priority to negotiations has always been the Commission's position.”

Others, including UNICE itself, point to the fact that the meeting falls after this month's German election. “I don't think they could do much before that,” said one observer.

But ETUC general secretary Emilio Gabaglio accused UNICE of yet more “foot dragging” and called on the Commission to impose a deal on the social partners as promised.

“This move just will not do. It beggars belief that this apparent shift in the employers' attitude towards negotiations should be linked to a political event. UNICE's constant harping on about the independence of the social partners looks pretty hollow now,” he said.