EMF and collective bargaining ETUI/EPSU seminar, Erlend Hansen

Out-line Our structureKey decisions Cooperation with ETUC and others 2

Committee  Has recently been expanded to cover also social policy issues which are related to collective bargaining, e.g. working time and pensions.  Around 65 members and turnout of  Two meetings per year, up till 2012 one of them in a new member state.  Each meeting lasts one and a half days.  Draft decisions circulated before meetings.  Minutes taken and written in EN, GE, FR. 3

Select Working Party  Consists of about 18 committee members  High turnout  Important steering group  Prepares committee meetings and summer school  Chair and vice-chair from affiliates  Normally five meetings per year, not always in Brussels. Try to be practical. 4

White collar group  Subordinate to regular select working party  Either pure engineer unions (Nordic) or representatives of more complex unions  Influences work programme, but it is not very visible in our federation.  Key political issues are long working hours, lack of regulations and unpaid overtime. 5

Summer college  In cooperation with ETUI, financed by Commission  Annual event in September, held in Southern Europe, popular.  Cross between seminar and think tank  High level participation  Informal, but important, looks into the future  Focus on economic policy, Eucoban and common demands. Sometimes with external experts. 6

CB conference  Normally held every four years.  Biggest event between congresses  EMF had 250 participants in Madrid

Common demands - 1  2005: EMF common demand on training  ETUF:TCL common demand on training  2009: EMF evaluation of CD on training and adoption of new CD on precarious work  2011: EMCEF and ETUF:TCL common demands on precarious work. Slightly different.  2012: Decisions to be merged. One campaign until next conference, possibly in  No plans of a next CD yet. 8

Common demands - 2  Broad democratic processes, decisions taken by CB conference.  Critical to get a good start, we use “road-maps”, questions are not academic  Continuous evaluation in special surveys and annual Eucoban report. Special web site.  Important to show European employers that we stand together  Our affiliates refer to European decisions in national CB and political lobbying 9

Temp agency work  Special focus on this challenge  Most important issue within precarious work  Our sectors are highly affected  We see hiring as extraordinary solution, permanent employment should be normal  Wish to reduce hiring in different ways  Uncertain of new directive. Little knowledge of implementation so far. 10

Eucoban  Stands for “European Collective Bargaining Network”.  Annual report on macroeconomic development and collective bargaining. Participation satisfactory, but could have been better. Questionnaire and report in EN, GE and FR.  Day-to-day reporting system. Majority of items on CB rounds, immediately circulated to more than 100 correspondents. Search by country in web site.  Direct communication/questions between member organisation. 11

Regional networks  8 networks existed in the EMF  Some were active, others not  Evaluated after last CB conference  Secretariat of European federation offers assistance to self-organisation 12

Wage coordination  Wage coordination rule first adopted in 1998  Unions should demand compensation for inflation and productivity  Reassessed and slightly reworded in 2011  Didn’t work in crisis years due to falling productivity (and inflation in some cases)  Future Eucoban reports will be more forward- looking and analyse trends.  Decisions of three former federations will be merged. 13

Coop with ETUC  ETUC follows and influences economic policy of EU  We are represented in their CB committee and in social policy working groups.  Steering group about to be set up  Also important for us to have dialogue with other federations like EPSU  New ETUC initiative called “European Social Contract”.  ETUC has applied to Commission for funding of CB coordination project. 14

Thank you for your attention! 15