EU Labour mobility: SEDEC members urge European Commission to ensure "fair mobility" and proper enforcement of mobile workers' rights
As the European Commission is expected to present a Labour Mobility Package later this year, members of the European Committee of the Regions' Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC) have called on the EU executive to act strongly to safeguard fair working conditions for mobile workers, uphold social standards and ensure their proper enforcement.
The European Commission has announced it will present a Labour Mobility Package by the end of 2015 so as to support more efficient and fairer labour mobility, and tackle fraud and abuse. The European Commission intends to do so by means of better coordination of social security systems, targeted review of the Posting of Workers Directive and an enhanced EURES - the European job mobility portal. In order to feed into the reflection that will lead to the CoR position on the matter, SEDEC members engaged yesterday in a debate together with the Luxembourg EU Presidency, the European Parliament, the European Commission, and representatives from the business world and the trade unions.
" Free movement of persons is one of the most popular accomplishments of the EU but labour mobility has been affected by deep changes in the European political and economic landscape, not least the financial crisis ", pointed out SEDEC Chair Yoomi Renström (SE/PES), when introducing the debate. " As local and regional politicians, we have first-hand experience of the negative effects of labour mobility and the gradual deterioration of working conditions, leading to social dumping ", she further underlined, urging the European Commission to come forward with a comprehensive labour mobility package that fights abuses while upholding the right of workers to move and work anywhere in the EU.
On behalf of the EU Presidency, Luxembourg's Minister of Labour Nicolas Schmit stressed the need to ensure that mobility does not weaken social standards: " We have to strengthen the social conditions and create a new balance between circulation, mobility and free movement on the one hand, and the workers' social rights on the other. If we fail to achieve that, we run the risk of undermining the very principle of mobility and, with it, the European project as such". In this regard, the European Commission's representative who took part to the debate reiterated the Commission's objective to find the right balance to optimise the benefits coming from labour mobility, whilst also seeking to minimise possible negative effects such as fraud and abuses.
Also participating in the discussions, MEP Marita Ulvskog i (SE/S&D), Vice-Chair of the European Parliament's Employment and Social Affairs Committee (EMPL), underlined the importance of "fair mobility" and the fight against social dumping: " Freedom of movement is a fundamental cornerstone of the EU. But for it to work in practice, it needs to be fair. Fair for our businesses, fair for our employees, and fair for our consumers ". She expressed strong support for the European Commission's commitment to combat social dumping and announced that the EMPL Committee would adopt an own-initiative report on "Social dumping in the European Union" in the coming months, inviting the Committee of the Regions to contribute to the debate.
SEDEC members said they were eagerly awaiting the European Commission's package on labour mobility. They stressed the need to make the most of the benefits of mobility, whilst preserving social standards and tackling social dumping and unfair competition. They however raised concerns, such as how to ensure proper enforcement of existing legislation on the ground and how to address the issue of low pay for mobile workers. A call was also made to give greater prominence to local and regional authorities who are all too often left out of discussions about mobility, social inclusion, and migration.
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The SEDEC commission
The Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC) coordinates the European Committee of the Regions' work in the areas of employment, social policy, equal opportunities, innovation, research and technology, Digital Agenda, education and training, audio-visual industry and media, youth and sport, multilingualism and culture. It gathers about 110 regional and local elected representatives from the 28 EU member states. It is chaired by Yoomi Renström (SE/PES), Member of Ovanåker Municipal Council.