On 1 February, in response to a United States law (the Inflation Reduction Act – IRA) that is intended to encourage the environmental transition of American industry, the European Commission presented a communication on the Green Deal Industrial Plan. The aim is to “enhance the competitiveness of Europe’s industry” in its “fast transition to climate neutrality” (see press release). This plan accompanies the objective set by the European Climate Law, i.e. that of achieving a climate-neutral Union by 2050 (see European Green Deal). At a social level, the communication proposes various initiatives, such as establishing “Net-Zero Industry Academies to roll out up-skilling and re-skilling programmes in strategic industries”. The European Trade Union Confederation believes that the EU is “being left behind when it comes to social conditions to ensure public money is used for the common good”, whereas the IRA is providing for, among other things, bonus tax credits for companies which pay decent wages and hire apprentices (see press release). Luc Triangle, General Secretary of IndustriAll Europe, explains: “In return for green subsidies, companies must ensure a fair transition with worker participation and collective bargaining, fair pay, quality jobs and high social standards” (see press release). It is odd that, at a time when the Commission is proclaiming the importance of collective bargaining – and stating in the “minimum wage” directive that it would like to see 80% of Europe’s employees covered by collective agreements – that “social dialogue” and “working conditions” chapters are absent from public policies (see Minimum wage). Speaking before the European Parliament, Dutch MEP Agnes Jongerius (S&D) expressed her disappointment and her view that the Commission had missed an opportunity: “any public money spent should go only to companies that are covered by a collective bargaining agreement”. This is one way of emphasising that the environmental transition cannot be achieved without closely involving the social partners who will have to manage the huge crises that lie ahead. In other words, why not assign this key role to them right now?

Health and safety at work : The European Commission has published a proposal for a directive amending Directive (EU) 2022/431 of 9 March 2022 on the protection of workers from the risks related to exposure to carcinogens or mutagens at work, with a view to lowering the occupational exposure limits and biological limit values for lead, and introducing an exposure limit for diisocyanates, which can cause respiratory diseases such as asthma (see Carcinogens directive revision). These substances are widely used in the green transition sectors (production of batteries, insulating materials, etc. (see press release).

Due diligence : On 9 February, the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted its opinion on the Proposal for a Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (see Due diligence). It proposed a number of changes to the corporate obligations provided for in Article 15, such as requiring companies to ensure that their transition plan is “aligned” (and no longer merely “compatible”, as provided for by the proposal) with the limiting of global warming to 1.5° C, in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Another was that the proportion of the variable remuneration paid to directors of companies with more than 1,000 employees should be linked to implementation of the transition plan.
> European Works Councils: The UNI Europa trade union federation has published a document in the form of a checklist aimed at, among others, EWC members wishing to evaluate the quality and relevance of the commitments entered into by their company with regard to Human Rights Due Diligence (‘HRDD’).

• EU Cycling Strategy : In a resolution, the European Parliament has called on the European Commission to develop a specific strategy for cycling which, among other things, will encourage “companies, public organisations and institutions to promote cycling through specific incentives, including programmes for employees (…)”. This initiative is non-binding but it should bring about changes in national legal frameworks, such as in Belgium which, on 1 May, will be introducing a legal requirement for private-sector employers to pay a cycling allowance of €0.27 per kilometre travelled (capped at 40 kilometres per day) to their workers.

• Social Climate Fund: : The representatives of Member States and of two European Parliament Committees have approved the political agreement reached on the Council regarding the proposal for a regulation on the Social Climate Fund to compensate vulnerable households, micro-businesses and transport users for some of the costs of the green transition (see press release issued by Parliament and presentation fact sheet). The regulation will then have to be formally adopted by Parliament and the Council before it is published.

Nanomaterials : The EU Court of Justice (CJEU) has handed down a judgment annulling the classification of titanium dioxide (TiO2) as a carcinogenic substance by inhalation (see CJEU press release and judgment of the General Court). “This annulment is particularly problematic, insofar as it allows manufacturers to no longer alert workers when powders contain nanometric TiO₂, even though the CJEU has not ruled out the possibility that this poses a hazard”, emphasises Mathilde Detcheverry of France’s AVICENN association (see press release). The CFDT, which is one of the few trade unions to have reacted, deplores “this rescinding of the right to information for workers who, from now on, will no longer alerted in cases where micro- and nanometric particles are present in TiO2 powders” (see CFDT press release). The French authorities, which submitted the original application for TiO2 to be classified as a carcinogenic substance by inhalation, have lodged an appeal against the Court’s judgment (see government press release).

• Whistleblower : The European Court of Human Rights has delivered an important judgment, in a case involving Raphaël Halet and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). In the “Luxleaks” case, this employee handed over to a journalist fourteen tax returns submitted by multinational companies and two covering letters. After being dismissed by PwC, he was ordered to pay a fine of 1,000 euros for disclosing confidential information. The European Court is striking a balance between the prejudicial effects on the employer and the outcome of the disclosure. It notes that the disclosure has “made an essential contribution” to sparking the “public debate on the tax practices of multinational companies, at both national and European level”. The nature “of the penalties imposed and the seriousness of the effects of accumulating them, in particular their chilling effect on the freedom of expression of the applicant or any other whistle-blower (…) cannot be regarded as proportionate in the light of the legitimate aim pursued”. Interference in the whistle-blower’s right to freedom of expression, and in particular his freedom to impart information, was not “necessary in a democratic society” (see judgment and the Court’s Legal summary and press release).

• Sectoral social dialogue : In a letter sent to the European Commission, 23 employers’ organisations and 6 European trade union federations have urged it to abandon its plans to change the rules governing the financing of sectoral social dialogue (see IR Notes 201). The Commission “wants the social partners to use existing budgets linked to project-based financing to fund social dialogue”, explains Isabelle Barthès, Deputy General Secretary of industriAll Europe. “It represents, especially for the smallest organisations, a huge administrative burden and creates a great deal of uncertainty”. The signatories stress the contradiction apparent in the policies of a Commission which, on the one hand, explains that “social dialogue has never been so crucial”, yet on the other hand, is reducing its political and financial support.

Managing algorithms : The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) has passed a resolution calling for “an EU Directive on Algorithmic Systems at Work”, which should “define European minimum standards for the design and use of algorithmic systems in the employment context”. ETUC’s view is that the current proposal for AI legislation “is not suitable for regulating its use in the workplace”. Workers and their representatives shall have the right “to receive information about the used applications in plain and understandable language”. An “algorithmic impact assessment for changes in working conditions, including a fundamental rights and equality impact assessment”, must be carried out by “the employer, with the full involvement of trade unions and workers’ representatives before any system is implemented”. The latter shall also have the right to gain external expertise (see Algorithmic management).

• Night-time work : When presenting the 2022 annual report, the President of the Federal Labour Court (BAG), Inken Gallner, drew attention to the fact that in 2023, the Court is due to rule on a large number of cases relating to contractual supplements for regular night-time working, as provided for in numerous collective labour agreements. The matter at issue is whether these supplements should be brought into line with the higher supplements payable for irregular night-time working (see press release).

Discrimination : Parliament has passed several laws that will have an impact in the employment field (see press release issued by the Congress of Deputies). The law amending framework bill 2/2010, of 3 March, on sexual and reproductive health and volontary interruption of pregnancy, stipulates that pathological situations affecting health during menstruation will result in the persons concerned being declared unfit for work, by a doctor. Their sick leave will be funded by the social security system. This “menstrual leave” is a significant first at EU level. The law on genuine and effective equality for trans people and guaranteeing the rights of LGBTI persons, which aims to eradicate “situations of discrimination”, contains a measure proposed by the UGT trade union confederation, requiring companies with more than 50 employees to have plans in place that have been drawn up within the framework of social dialogue and will guarantee respect for diversity of sexual orientation and identity and/or gender expression in a job (see UGT press release).

Report on incomes of the elite: : An annual report produced by the trade union confederation LO highlights the fact that in 2019, the economic elite (made up of 50 CEOs of large Swedish companies) enjoyed an average income equivalent to 60.2 times the wages paid to industrial workers. This figure rose to 64.8 times this wage in 2020, then to 69.3 in 2021. The “divide is getting bigger”, notes LO: thus during the Covid-19 crisis, the relative income of these 50 CEOs grew by the equivalent of more than nine times the monthly wage earned by a manual worker (see press release).

Labour market reform : Parliament has adopted the Agenda for Decent Work, which is due to come into force in April this year. It contains around 70 measures, aimed at: combatting precarious employment; enhancing work-family balance; strengthening gender equality and inspection services; and promoting social dialogue. These measures include: increasing, from 5 to 20 consecutive days, the amount of leave granted following the death of an employee’s partner or their partner’s child; introducing 3 days’ perinatal bereavement leave; raising the father’s exclusive parental leave period from 20 to 28 days; introducing the right to teleworking for people whose children have disabilities or suffer from chronic or oncological diseases; a payment to cover teleworkers’ fixed outgoings; and the presumption of a contract of employment for platform workers who meet certain criteria (see government press release). Despite these advances, Portugal’s main trade union confederation, CGTP-IN, is critical of the reform (see press release), arguing that these measures “don’t solve the problems of precarious employment, deregulation of working hours, attacks on collective bargaining and infringement of trade union rights and freedoms”.

Zero-hours contracts : The government is supporting a bill that will enable workers recruited on zero-hours contracts to ask their employers to provide a more predictable working pattern (as called for by a recent European directive), to prevent employees having to “put their lives on hold to make themselves readily available for shifts that may never actually come” (see press release). These contracts “have no place in modern Britain”, said Paul Nowak, the TUC’s General Secretary. “They should be banned”. The trade union confederation emphasises that the number of people on zero-hours contracts has risen to over 1.1 million – the highest number on record (see press release).

A first European Works Council for an Indian group : On 15 September 2022, the Wipro group (250,000 employees), whose head office is at Bangalore (India), signed a EWC agreement under Irish law, following a request formulated by employee representatives in September 2019. The group emphasises that this EWC builds upon “successful, constructive working with Works Councils at local and national level across several European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, France, Sweden and Finland” (see Wipro press release). The EWC, which will be made up of no more than 24 members, will meet for the first time in March and will be followed by a plenary meeting in the third quarter of each year. Deepak Parija, Senior Vice President & CHRO, Wipro Europe, who was interviewed by IR Notes, said the EWC was all about “building an inclusive and sustainable working relationship with employee representatives from all countries, sharing and debating matters of transnational interest and letting colleagues have their say”. “We believe that the European Works Council will contribute added value to our organisation”, he explains, “as we’ll be able to obtain our employees’ opinion at international level on subjects that are transnational in scope. It also covers countries where formal employee representation systems are not (yet) common or in place”.

Working parties : Following the renegotiation of the agreement establishing the Vinci group’s European Works Council (see IR Notes 197), the council met for its first plenary session in February and elected the select committee, which comprises one representative for each of the six countries where the group has its largest workforce (Czechia, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and the UK). Alexandra Charton (CFDT), who was re-elected as secretary, emphasises that “the main challenge will be setting up targeted working parties” alongside the permanent working party on CSR. “We used to be told what was happening in the company. Now, with these working parties”, says the secretary, “we intend to be involved in shaping the company’s policies”.