Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-05-11-Speech-3-690-000"
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"en.20110511.38.3-690-000"2
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"Madam President, I welcome today’s discussion on a new ILO instrument for domestic workers.
In the next and final round of discussions in June, the Commission will continue to play an active coordination and facilitation role by working with Member State experts. My departments have been in contact with the social partners and a number of NGOs that have approached the Commission, and have had exchanges with the rapporteur for the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the professionalisation of domestic work.
Secondly, there is the question of the role of Europe 2020 in ensuring that precarious domestic jobs are transformed into decent sustainable jobs. We need to bear in mind the sector’s potential in terms of job creation and reconciling work and family responsibilities, and thus its role in meeting the objectives of the employment strategy. However, we must not forget the need to ensure that domestic jobs – not all of which should be regarded as precarious and undervalued or underpaid – are indeed decent jobs.
What is more, the fight against undeclared work, which is widespread in the domestic work sector, is an integral part of the Europe 2020 strategy as the first annual growth survey has confirmed. Ways of moving from informal or undeclared work to regular employment will be covered by the guiding principles on enabling conditions for job creation which the Commission announced in the communication on the Europe 2020 flagship initiative, ‘An agenda for new skills and jobs’. We will be putting forward those guiding principles next year. A number of Member States have useful experience in working to reduce the informal sector and precarious employment, for example, by introducing service voucher systems.
Thirdly, there is the question of amending the current framework legislation on health and safety at work – Directive 89/391/EEC – and on combating discrimination – Directive 2000/78/EC.
It is worth pointing out that the definition of domestic workers in the draft ILO Convention is very wide. It not only covers persons working in private households, but also for them, as well as persons employed by employment agencies.
Domestic servants are excluded from the definition of workers in the framework directive on health and safety at work. However, the EU legislator seems to have intended that the concept of domestic servants be interpreted narrowly, so not all domestic servants under the Convention are excluded from the scope of the EU health and safety at work
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Lastly, EU occupational and safety and health legislation provides minimum requirements and does not, therefore, prevent any Member State from introducing more stringent measures at national level. Consequently, the Member States are free to include domestic servants within the scope of their national legislation.
For the time being, the Commission has no plans to amend the framework directive on occupational safety and health. Nevertheless, the Commission considers that the current ILO initiative is a good opportunity to reflect on the situation of domestic servants in Europe.
I would add that Directive 2000/78/EC establishing a general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation does not exclude domestic workers, so no amendment is needed for the ratification of the ILO Convention. The Commission issued a report on the application of the directive in 2008 and will continue to follow its implementation in the Member States closely.
The fourth point concerns ways of informing domestic workers of, and strengthening, their rights. Although not all domestic workers are low-skilled and do not all work in precarious conditions, they are a vulnerable category and the Commission encourages the Member States to ensure they are properly protected by developing and enforcing their labour rights.
It is an important contribution to the second round of discussions on the new international standards which will probably be adopted in a few weeks’ time at the 100th session of the International Labour conference.
The Commission expects the problem of undeclared work by non-EU nationals to be dealt with in part by the Employers’ Sanctions Directive 2009/52/EC, which the Member States have to transpose into national legislation by 20 July this year. The directive will help to end the exploitation of illegally staying third-country nationals by some employers who pay them inadequate salaries and impose unsatisfactory working conditions.
One step forward would be agreement on the proposal for a directive on a single permit which provides for a common set of rights for third country workers residing legally in a Member State.
Let me now turn to the fifth and last point regarding the Commission’s role in promoting exchanges of best practice involving policy on domestic workers. In this connection, I want to mention a private project which the Commission is currently implementing at the request of this House, and which seeks to encourage the conversion of precarious work into work associated with rights.
Following a call for proposals issued under the pilot project in 2010, the Commission is co-funding a project that focuses on the consequences of the economic and financial crisis for precarious domestic, migrant and young workers, and on Member State measures to improve their rights. The project encourages exchanges of best practice, in particular, involving precarious workers’ collective representation. A second call for proposals, to be issued this year, will relate more specifically to action to improve the rights of the poorest workers, including domestic workers.
The pilot project will also involve a study to gain a better understanding of precarious work in 12 Member States, and to promote its conversion into employment relationships carrying more social rights, in particular, by looking at what the Member States can do in practical terms to encourage this transformation and identify a core of basic social rights. A case study of the situation of migrant domestic workers in Italy was carried out recently in connection with a project on decent work and industrial relations cofinanced by the Commission.
Lastly, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work and the Senior Labour Inspectors Committee have called for sector-wide information and awareness-raising campaigns on the protection of workers’ health and safety.
As you know, the European Commission is a firm supporter of the ILO’s decent work agenda. The Commission closely monitors and facilitates coordination among the Member States and has worked for the speedy ratification of a number of important instruments adopted in the last decade.
There are many reasons for developing new standards in the area of domestic work. For instance, there are a large number of domestic workers across the world, many of them belonging to vulnerable groups. Their precarious status and the fact that they often fall within the informal sector are also very important issues.
In the European Union, employment in this sector is very likely to expand, given population change and higher female participation in the labour market. That is why it is crucial to raise domestic workers’ professional profile and improve their image.
Let me now look at the practical issues raised by the question and first explain the Commission’s role in the ILO negotiations on a new convention and recommendation on decent work.
The institutional context needs to be borne in mind. The new instrument will be an international agreement. The Commission will therefore fulfil the role conferred on it by the Treaty with due regard for the special features of the ILO, where the European Union has observer status only – unlike the Member States which are members. That is why the Union cannot ratify ILO conventions itself.
The Commission followed the discussions actively and facilitated coordination among the experts of the Member States during the first round of discussions at the ILO in 2010. It has analysed the instruments as they developed during the negotiations in the light of EU legislation. The Commission was attentive, in particular, to any sections of the draft convention that could affect freedom of movement for workers.
As the new ILO Convention will comprise matters of EU competence, the Member States need to comply with the EU
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