EFFAT acknowledges positive elements in the newly published EU Quality Jobs Roadmap and Act, the package of social policy initiatives announced yesterday by the European Commission.
Following years and months of intense mobilisation, including the publication of an EFFAT Model Directive, we welcome the decision to include subcontracting as one of the priorities of the forthcoming social partners’ consultation for possible legislative initiatives. While the identified potential direction of EU action still lacks ambition, EFFAT will use this consultation to once again highlight the urgent need for an EU Directive that limits subcontracting, ensures equal treatment in the workplace, prohibits the contracting of core activities, and regulates labour intermediaries by tackling gangmaster practices.
EFFAT also welcomes that the social partners consultation will focus on enforcement, with great attention to the need to strengthen labour inspections. The EFFAT Model Directive offers clear proposals in this respect, in particular on how to target inspections more effectively by combining various data sources and enable better cooperation between Member States’ enforcement bodies.
EFFAT considers it extremely positive that the social partners’ consultation will also address other crucial areas, including algorithmic management and artificial intelligence (AI) at work, Just Transition, and health and safety at work, with a particular focus on psychosocial risks.
We will also play a very active role in shaping upcoming initiatives, including the revision of the ELA mandate and the launch of the Mobility Package.
While the upcoming assessment of the OSH framework is welcome, EFFAT regrets that the long-standing demand for a targeted revision of OSH Directive 89/391/EEC, to explicitly include domestic workers within its scope, has not yet been made a priority by the Commission. This is particularly worrying, as domestic workers still lack recognition in many countries and continue to face high levels of undeclared work as well as unsafe and precarious working conditions in the vast majority of Member States.
Enrico Somaglia, EFFAT General Secretary, said: “The Commission has heard our demands over the past months, without which issues such as abusive contracting and subcontracting practices would not have been addressed in the Quality Jobs Act. EFFAT is ready to continue fighting until all our demands are met, including our call for a binding Directive on subcontracting and labour intermediaries that also boosts the frequency and effectiveness of labour inspections. Wednesday’s vote in the EMPL Committee on the Danielsson report provides renewed momentum on this key EFFAT priority.”
This Roadmap opens the door to measures that can truly deliver for working people in our sectors. EFFAT will take part in the consultation to ensure that binding legislation follows and that Quality Jobs are secured for everyone.
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