EU policies and instruments in Fair Employment

EU Treaties

Article 151 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union identifies working conditions as an area of EU concern: “The Union and the Member States, having in mind fundamental social rights… shall have as their objectives the promotion of employment, improved living and working conditions”. Furthermore, the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights (Articles 27-33) address psychosocial risks resulting from labour market instability including workers’ right to information and consultation, the right to collective bargaining and action, protection in the event of unjustified dismissal and fair and just working conditions.

Health and Safety at Work

The Strategy on Health and Safety at Work (2007-2012) has become one of the most important areas of social and employment policy at the EU level. Research (for example on SMEs) indicate that high levels of occupational health and safety contribute to company performance, improves staff well-being, reduces absenteeism and staff turnover, and brings greater job satisfaction.

The 2007-2012 Strategy set out to reduce the total incidence rate of accidents at work in the EU27 by 25 per cent by:

• Improving and simplifying existing legislation and enhancing its practical implementation through non-binding instruments such as exchanges of good practice, awareness-raising campaigns and better health and safety training.
• Defining and implementing national strategies adjusted to the specific context of each member state. These strategies should target the sectors and companies most affected and fix national targets for reducing occupational accidents and illness.
• Mainstreaming health and safety at work into other national and European policy areas such as education, public health and research.
• Better identifying and assessing potential new risks through more research and exchange of knowledge.

Priorities in the health and safety area for the period after 2013 are currently being developed, they should be subject to an open public consultation on the European Commission’s website in the next few weeks.

Awareness raising, another main element of the EU Strategy on Health and Safety at Work, is being promoted by the Healthy Workplaces Campaign 2012–13 ‘Working together for risk prevention’. This decentralised campaign aims to encourage managers, workers and other stakeholders to join forces to improve safety and health. It focuses on risk prevention and risk management. It encourages the involvement of managers, workers, their representatives and other stakeholders to reduce work related risks. In addition, the European Pact for Mental Health and Well-being recognizes the central role of employment in physical and mental health and invites policy makers, social partners and further stakeholders to take action.

Working Time

One of the most widely known Directives is the EU’s Working Time Directive, which is laid down on grounds of health and safety. As such, each member state must ensure that every worker is entitled to:

• A limit to weekly working time, which must not exceed 48 hours on average including any overtime.
• A minimum daily rest period, of 11 consecutive hours in every 24.
• A rest break during working time, if the worker is on duty for longer than six hours.
• A minimum weekly rest period of 24 uninterrupted hours for each seven-day period, which is added to the 11 hours’ daily rest.
• Paid annual leave, of at least four weeks per year.
• Extra protection in the case of night work.

The Directive also sets out special rules for working time in a small range of sectors: doctors in training, offshore workers, sea fishing workers, workers in urban passenger transport and others.

EU Structural and Cohesion Funds

Working Conditions, health and safety, and concern for a healthy labour force is also an EU funding priority in the current Community Strategic Guidelines on Cohesion (2007-2013). These function as a guide for the use of Structural and Cohesion Funds, which are the financial instruments of European Union regional policy intending to narrow development disparities between regions and member states. For example, the European Social Fund guidelines state that “the design and dissemination of innovative and more productive forms of work organisation” should include “better health and safety at work”.

PROGRESS

The PROGRESS programme is a financial instrument supporting the development and co-ordination of EU policy in five different areas: Employment, social inclusion and social protection, working conditions, anti-discrimination and gender equality.

Overall, its objective is to help achieve the goals of the EU2020 strategy by promoting shared understanding and ownership of EU objectives, cross-country and region partnerships, more effective application of EU rules on worker protection and equality, effective information sharing and learning, evidence-based EU policies and legislation, integration and consistency of cross-cutting issues, and a high-quality and participatory policy debate. Under the EC's proposal for the EU regional, employment and social policy for 2014-2020, the Progress programme should be integrated in the EU Programme for Social Change and Innovation (EUPSCI) which will support policy coordination, sharing of best practices, capacity-building and testing of innovative policies.

Employment Package

The EC came forward with the Employment Package as a response to high and rising rates of unemployment across the EU. It intends to boost employment rates by creating new jobs that contribute to more dynamic and inclusive labour markets with lower job insecurity and by easing the transition of young people into the labour market.

As part of this, the European Youth Guarantee was agreed, which sets out to support regions with problematic levels of youth unemployment to ensure young people are guaranteed a quality job offer, further education, or work-focused training at a maximum of four months after leaving education or becoming unemployed. This initiative is modelled on existing schemes (for example in Finland) that often include measures to prevent Early School Leaving (ESL), measures to re-integrate ESL’s into the labour market, measures to increase the employability of young people and measures to remove practical/logistical barriers and increase incentives for the employment of young people.

Statistics

Having up-to-date, accurate and comparable statistics is vital for understanding differences between regions, the impact of policies, and development of future strategies. Member states are required to supply Eurostat with statistics concerning health status and health determinants, health care, causes of death, accidents at work, occupational diseases and other work-related problems and illness.

Moreover, Eurostat collects data on work accidents through the European Statistics on Accidents at Work, on occupational diseases through the European Occupation Diseases Statistics, on working conditions through the European Working Conditions Survey and has run ad hoc modules on health and safety at work in the 1999 and 2007 EU Labour Force Surveys.