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Newsletter (April 2019)

Text adopted: Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions

The EU Institutions have agreed on the Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions, leading to its official adoption in Parliament on 16 April 2019. CoESS successfully highlighted some critical aspects in the original Commission proposal, but a few concerns remain, which should be addressed during the transposition phase at national level.

The new Directive is a revision of the Written Statement Directive and shall give employees who start a new job the right to be notified in writing of the aspects of their employment relationship, including information on: (1) the nature of their employment, (2) length of probationary periods, (3) advance notifications on working schedules, (4) possibilities to change employment forms, and (5) the right for cost-free training. The new Directive shall ensure a basic level of universal protection across existing and future contractual forms.

Successful amendments to the original European Commission proposal

While the initial proposal raised many concerns within CoESS, the final text takes on board several issues we had raised in the past with the European Commission, including:

• The definition of “worker”– contrary to the original proposal, the Directive will not establish a new definition of the term “worker” and replace national legislation or collective agreements, but will apply to workers with an employment contract or employment relation as defined at national level.
• Respect for social partners and room for social dialogue – importantly, collective agreements can differ from the provisions on minimum rights, as long as they respect the overall protection of workers (Art. 12). Art. 13, which would have obliged Member States to declare provisions contrary to the Directive in collective agreements null and void or to amend them, has been deleted.
• Information provision – concerning the provision of information (Art. 3) and timing (Art. 4), the employer may refer to law and collective agreements. The agreement provides that the essential information to be provided by the employer should be available to the employee within a period of seven calendar days as of the first day of employment, the other information within one month.
• Minimum predictability of work – Art. 9.1a on minimum predictability of work schedules is now clearly restricted to on-demand contracts.
• Training – in contrast to the original Commission proposal, employers only have to provide training that is obligatory by EU and national law or collective agreements (Art. 11).

Remaining concerns to raise on national level during the transposition phase

CoESS remains concerned about the administrative burden that the Directive is likely to create as well as lack of legal certainty on some elements. We advise national associations to raise these issues during the transposition phase of the Directive with the ministries responsible at national level. For more information on detailed provisions, please contact the CoESS Team.

Next steps

As the Directive was adopted by European Parliament on 16 April 2019, Member States will now have to do the same in Council. Afterwards, they will have to transpose the Directive in national law within three years.

Find here the provisional agreement on the Directive on Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/commissions/empl/lcag/2019/02-15/EMPL_LA(2019)001486_EN.pdf