ETUC PROJECT: Boosting unions participation to guarantee quality transitions and employment to young people in Europe

Transcription

1 Call for proposals VP/2016/002 ETUC PROJECT: Boosting unions participation to guarantee quality transitions and employment to young people in Europe 1. Context and content of the project Background and rationale: The lack of effective employment and industrial policies make youth unemployment in Europe more sensitive to macroeconomic developments than it is to the labour market as a whole. Unemployment rates for young people in Europe were already significantly higher (when not double) to those of the total workforce before the outburst of the financial and economic crisis. Thus, the situation of young workers reacted strongly across the EU from 2008 onwards. Young people have been negatively affected by the economic crisis in many different axis of their life. Along with the access to education, participation in the labour market under quality conditions is a preconditions to an effective integration in society. Despite some recent relative improvements, the unemployment rate for young people from 16 to 25 years old remains above 20%. A transnational analysis shows a drastic and steady divergence among countries, with more than 40% of youngsters looking for a job in some member states (Greece, Italy, Spain). Also, intra-categorical analysis shows that young women and migrant workers have been even more hit by unemployment and the degradation of the labour market. The crisis has also resulted in a significant growth in the proportion of long-term unemployed youth in Europe, with one every two young unemployed workers looking for a job for more than one year. As stated above, this situation varies significantly across Europe. The effects of long-term unemployment are detrimental for several areas of life as the longer the period without finding a job the more severe its consequences. A recent Eurofound research stated that prolonged episodes in unemployment have a negative impact over the mental health, the quality of social and family life, the future employment prospects, and the level of trust in democracy and institutions, to name a few. Along with youth unemployment, the number of young people who are Neither in Employment nor in Education or Training (NEET) has also increased considerably since the beginning of the recession with significant variation between countries and regions. 1

2 The consequences of young people s disengagement in the labour market and society as a whole can be dramatic for individuals, the society and the economy. Also, the impact of such an exclusion does not have a temporary duration but they may extend for prolonged periods in their life and their professional career, as well as to have effects over a wider scope of areas of the individual and the society. When it comes to the quality of the employment available, in the EU 28, the number of temporary contracts offered to young workers is on average almost 3 times more than the temporary contracts offered to the overall population. Along with fixed-term contracts, young people are more exposed to be employed under non-standard forms of work. While these emerging categories should not be automatically regarded as precarious ones, in general terms these workers are more vulnerable since they hold responsibility for all the costs associate to their activity, including - in many cases - social protection. Many of the jobs created are temporary and part-time. Underemployment, in the form of involuntary part-time and fixed term work or work below people's qualification levels, is increasing. Too many young people face a precarious employment situation, plagued by job insecurity: precarious contracts such as zero-hour contracts, bogus self-employment and undeclared work are becoming the negative features of the labour market. Young people are overrepresented among the minimum wage earners, so they have been particularly affected in those countries where decision has been take to cut or to freeze these wages. Going beyond the employment indicators, another challenge in the situation of young people in Europe is their transition from the educational system to the labour market. In this respect, significant divergences from different groups of European countries exist. In those member states clustered in Mediterranean region, school-to-work transitions are difficult and problematic. Here the very high unemployment rate clashes with the lack of employment demand. This situation carries on very slow and delayed emancipatory processes in terms of living autonomously and eventually starting a new family. It is broadly acknowledged that apprenticeships can bring significant developments to facilitate the transition from school to the world of work. However, given that apprenticeship training by its very nature is a combination of school-based and work-based training, a major challenge is clearly the state of the labour market which itself is dependent upon development in the broader economy. But there is an overall declining on the numbers of apprenticeship schemes all over Europe, even in countries whose economies are performing well. Other challenges regarding apprenticeships are the under-representation of young women and young people from ethnic minorities, as well as the difficulties in the completion/premature termination and retention (transition to work) rates of trainees. In order to give an answer to the difficulties of young Europeans in the labour market, the European Youth Strategy was proposed by the European Commission in 2009 and approved by the European Parliament in This strategy took a comprehensive and multidimensional approach in which along with an emphasis on promoting youth employment through the employability and education-to-labour-market transitions, actions were also taken towards the empowerment and the social inclusion of young people. In 2010, the Europe 2020 strategy committed EU Member States to create the conditions for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. A flagship initiative on youth named Youth on the move paved the way for the upcoming measures on young people in society and in the labour market. Concrete 2

3 measures included the mobility portal Your first EURES job. In 2011 the Youth Opportunities Initiative (YOI) of the European Commission put forward a set of measures to boost youth employment by preventing early school-leaving, developing skills relevant for the labour market, and fostering first work experiences and promoting on-the-job training. In December 2012 the European Commission presented its Youth Employment Package, which followed up on youth actions outlined in the wider EU Employment Package. It comprised a range of different measures with the aim of boosting youth employment, being the Youth Guarantee at its core. The Quality Framework for Traineeships and European Alliance for Apprenticeships were also included in the Youth Employment Package. The European social partners, along with the European Commission, the EU Presidency and the Presidency of the Council of the European Union launched the European Alliance for Apprenticeships in July 2013 with a declaration in which they "contribute to contribute to the access to, supply, quality and attractiveness of apprenticeships across the EU by encouraging the setting up, reviving or modernising of apprenticeship schemes". The Council of the European Union adopted on April 2013 a Recommendation on establishing a Youth Guarantee which was followed by an endorsement at the June 2013 European Council. This policy consisted on the provision of a good-quality offer of employment, continued education, an apprenticeship or a traineeship within a period of four months of becoming unemployed or leaving education. The Youth Employment Initiative, a specific financial mechanism for setting into motion the Youth Guarantee, was made available for regions at NUTS 2 level suffering youth unemployment rates above 25%. The European Social Fund continued providing support for every member states on fostering youth employment initiatives also including the Youth Guarantee. The Commission will decide whether or not to extend the funding for this initiative into 2016 based on the member states reports on the implementation and impact of the Youth Employment Initiative, which are due for submission both at the end of this year. On another note, the EU has been promoted a soft law approach in the framework of the European Semester and under the Europe 2020 strategy. Member States should submit their Strategic Social Reports and National Social Reports demonstrating their progress in achieving the five EU targets set out in the Europe 2020 strategy. Social inclusion and youth policies namely the Youth Guarantee have made their way among the recommendations of the European Semester. When it comes to trade unions and young workers, their representation declines faster than among older workers despite the proven fact that the youth is not necessarily negative towards trade unions in the first place (against the general assumption). Younger workers tend to work in sectors that are less covered by union membership and collective bargaining and this is seen by several researchers as one of the main reasons for the lack of unionisation amongst the young. That said, it should be acknowledged that union tactics and activities in organising young union members can play a role. Ojectives of the project: With this project the ETUC and its partners will be pursuing the following objectives: To contribute to the improvement of the situation of young Europeans in the labour market. To evaluate and to provide a trade union input to the implementation of European youth employment policies. 3

4 To empower young people in the trade unions, and make them more active in the industrial relations system, in particular via their youth structures. The project proposed here is totally linked with the EU2020 strategy (more concretely with the flagship initiative "Youth on the move") and its deployment into the Youth Opportunities Initiative (2011), the Youth Employment Package (2012), and the Youth Employment Initiative (2013). The project will address from a double-sided approach the implementation of European youth employment policies at European and national (even local) level. The project also aims to carry out an in-depth analysis and quality evaluation of the potential tools European and national trade unions have at their disposal to promote youth employment at European, national and company level. One of the key tools available to social partners to tackle youth employment issues is collective bargaining at national, sectorial and company level. The aim of the project is to evaluate existing good practices and compare them across Europe. European level: The partnership approach was enshrined in the Council recommendation for the implementation of a Youth Guarantee in Europe. However, different studies (ETUC, 2014; Eurofound, 2015) have demonstrated that the involvement of social partners and youth organizations in this initiative remains a challenge. In the framework of this project, we will conduct first of all an evaluation of the social partners involvement in the implementation of the Youth Employment Initiative and other EU employment measures. Special attention will be given to the principle of the partnership approach. But overall, one of the main outcomes of the project will be to identify best trade union practices at in a given company, sector or municipality/region, and to propose concrete measures to develop the Youth Guarantees in the mentioned levels. Particular cases in which the Works' Council of a given company has engaged the human resources management in the implementation of these schemes will be identified. Good practices from European Works Councils will be also tracked, and specific recommendations addressing these bodies will be tackled. The European Parliament and the European Commission are in the process of evaluating the various initiatives contained within the YEI. This project will take stock of the aforementioned reports. With a view to assessing the effectiveness of the partnership approach in the implementation of the YEI, this project will identify good practices at national and sectoral level. This project will cross-compare identified good practices and develop a number of key recommendations to facilitate social partner involvement in the YEI implementation. Several other policy measures aimed at enhancing the transition of young people from the educational system (or unemployment) to the labour market have been developed: the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships. Apprenticeships schemes, when properly implemented, can significantly contribute to facilitating transition processes, to tackling skills mismatches in the labour market and to encouraging employers to provide young people with fair and good jobs. The above-mentioned Alliance was launched in July 2013 with a joint declaration by the European Social Partners (ETUC, BUSSINESSEUROPE, UEAPME and CEEP), the European Commission and the Presidency of the Council of the EU. This measure has been supported through pledges of commitment reached by Social Partners within the framework of the European sectoral social dialogue. Although the potentials of such initiatives are extremely relevant, the main issue still remains the follow-up and the implementation at 4

5 company level of these pledges. In this regard, a previous ETUC project named Setting up a European quality framework for apprenticeships and work-based learning, tackled the quality and the effectiveness of apprenticeships schemes and developed a quality framework jointly agreed by the European Social Partners as an outcome. This project will pursue the engaged work with regard to the assessment of the involvement of the social partners in the implementation of the Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships. This assessment will focus on national, sectoral and company levels. In pursuing these activities this project will seek to foster social partner involvement in the implementation of the Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships. Moreover, the applicant acknowledges the potential role European Works Councils can play in managing youth employment-related issues. The study will therefore assess the role EWCs can potentially play in both the monitoring and the implementation of the pledges signed in the framework of the Alliance for apprenticeships. Social dialogue at European level remains an essential tool to develop and agree on strategies and policies tailored to boost youth employment and create quality jobs for young people. Youth employment-related issues should therefore permanently feature on the social dialogue agendas at European and sectoral level. The project aims to achieve this goal with proposals and recommendations that could possibly lead to future initiatives of the European social partners. National and local level: Social partners at national and sectoral level have a crucial role to play in the design, implementation and assessment of the Youth Guarantee and associated initiatives. This project will highlight good practices, where trade unions and employers have achieved a good degree of cooperation and involvement in the design and implementation of Youth Guarantee schemes. This project will produce a practical toolbox containing recommendations, which will be included in the final report. Through the engagement of trade unions and employers, it will foster effective implementation of the Youth Guarantee at national and sectoral level. This same approach of identifying good practices at local, sectorial and company level will be followed for the analysis of the implementation of the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships. This project will enable the social partners to further disseminate the results of their assessment with regard to the Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships at national and sector levels. The final report will include a section with a set of recommendations derived from the identified good practices. Methodology/ Administration 2. Methodology and work programme The project will have a duration of 24 months, starting on December 2016 and finishing in December The Steering Committee will consist of the 8 members of the ETUC Youth Committee bureau (a steering body which follows a territorial division, with one representative per geographical area), and 1 representative per European Trade Union Federation, one representative from the ETUC Secretariat, the external expert, and the ETUC Youth Officer, thus making up a total of 17 people. Three meetings of the steering committee will take place (one in Brussels, one in France and one in 5

6 Slovenia), to allow the project partners to conduct their exchanges and to supervise and guide the research/study conducted by the expert. The final Conference (or Summit), where this report will be presented and discussed with a wider audience (120 people), will take place in Sweden. A meeting of the Steering Committee will be organized in France as the country constitutes one of the best examples on the implementation of Youth Guarantees in Europe, with an operational programme which is starting to deliver results in terms of improving the situations of NEETs and developing school-to-work transitions schemes. Members of the Steering Committee of the project will have the opportunity to meet key actors from France involved in the implementation of the Youth Guarantee. The reason behind organising a meeting of the Steering Committee in Slovenia is to further involve young representatives from ETUC Mediterranean countries to contribute to the design and implementation of the project. Given that this southern region is the most affected by the labour market situation shown in the background section of this application, the ETUC believes that the ideas put forward by these representatives will maximize the efficiency of the recommendations and the deliverables of the project. It has been decided to organise the final summit in Sweden since the Nordic countries were pioneers in establishing a Youth Guarantee. Celebrating this closing activity of the project in this country will provide the opportunity of learning best practices from the trade union movement of the region. It should be also noted that no activities have been celebrated by the ETUC Youth Committee in the Nordic countries for a long time. An expert will be subcontracted for undertaking the research on the development of the European youth employment policies and the trade union recommendations based on best practices. The specific tasks of this researcher will be: - An analysis on the implementation at national level of EU youth employment policies, with a special focus on the Youth Guarantee, the European Alliance for Apprenticeships and the Quality Framework for Traineeships. The position of the ETUC affiliates on the quality of the measures undertaken as well as their views on the involvement of social partners in the design and implementation will be highlighted. - A compilation of best practices from the trade unions in the setting into motion the abovementioned policies (through negotiations with the employers and/or local and national Governments in the framework of collective bargaining and Social Dialogue). These examples identified should serve as a basis for producing a set of recommendations at national and European level for improving the quality and the effectiveness of thse measures. For this latter aim, the contributions of the European Trade Unions Federations will be key. The research will also take stock of the use of the European Semester in the setting into motion of the Youth Guarantee and the other European youth employment policies. The potential role in this field of the trade union movement in influencing the European Semester and the Country Specific Recommendations will be explored in the frame of the research. This study will be subcontracted due to the lack of an expert in-house who is able to undertake it. The report, including the above-mentioned recommendation will consist of an 80 pages document, which will be written in English by the expert and the translated into French. The print run will consist of 200 copies in English and 100 in French. The methodology to be followed by the expert for collecting 6

7 and processing the information will be desk research and on-line/telephone interviews. The expert will be requested to participate in the second and third meeting of the Steering Committee, which will also provide him/her the opportunity to have a direct contact with some of the national trade union officers who have been involved in the design and implementation of the EAfA and the Youth Guarantees. The expert will present the main findings of the research in the final conference, as well as taking an active role in the moderations of the presentations and the debates. The grid of activities of this final conference will be as follows: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Arrival of participants Presentation by the ETUC and Institutional panel, sharing of the ETUC Youth Committee of the main outcomes an the proposal of recommendations of the project recommendations. and the final conference. Presentation of the ETUC, the ETUC Youth Committee, and the European trade union federations positions on youth employment and the different European Governing policies. Representatives from the European Commission, members of the European Parliament, Swedish national representatives, members of the ETUC, the ETUC Youth Committee and the European trade union federations. Coffee break Swedish best practices at Closing of the conference. company level. Study visit. Lunch Working groups. Departure of participants Presentation of the Swedish trade union confederation on the situation of young people in the labour market in the country, the so-called Swedish model of industrial relations, and the implementation of European employment policies at national level. Presentation by the expert of the main findings of the research on the implementation at national level of European employment policies, the best practices identified at company Coffee break Debriefing from the working groups. 7

8 and local level. In September 2018 a launching event will take place in Brussels. The grid of activities would be as follows: Sandwich lunch Luca Visentini (ETUC General Secretary): Opening speech. Presentation of the main findings of two researches. 3 members of the European Parliament will provide feedback on the findings of the presentations and their parliamentary initiatives on the issue (tbc). A representative from DG Employment of the European Commission will be invited to react on the proposals of the ETUC and those put forward by the MEPs (tbc). Thie baut Weber (ETUC Confederal Secretary). The future of the European employment policies for young people. Debate. People involved Director: Thiébaut Weber (ETUC Confederal Secretary) will conduct the overall political direction of the project. He will attend all the steering group meetings and the final conference of the Project. Coordinator: Ignacio Doreste (ETUC youth coordinator) will be in charge of the everyday coordination of the project activities, of providing contents contributions to the project, and of communications/outreach activities. Tasks will include: liaising with the different project stakeholders and the members of the steering group, supervising the work of the external experts, drafting the agendas and liaising with the participants and the speakers of the events (dissemination seminar + final conference), preparing the working documents, attending and intervening in the project events, undertaking outreach activities (communicating and publicising the project outputs online, by attending other events, via the ETUC newsletter, by ) and drafting the final technical activity report. Expert: An expert will be subcontracted for undertaking the research on the development of the European youth employment policies and the involvement of trade unions in these. Steering Committee: Director and coordinator of the project, plus the eight members of the bureau of the ETUC Youth Committee, plus some representatives of ETUC affiliates. Editor: A communication expert / journalist will be subcontracted for editing / reviewing the above-mentioned report in order to make the text more readable, precise, and engaging for a broader audience. He will also prepare a leaflet to include the main findings of the research in an appealing language and lay-out. The editor will also contribute to the dissemination of the results to a specific target which will be provided by the ETUC (namely European and national decision-makers and key actors of the civil society). 8

9 Duration of the project: 24 months: from 01/01/2017 to 31/12/2018 Timetable for action events 3. Timetable Date Venue Type of event Participants Working languages Steering 15 English Month 2: January 2017 Brussels Committee meeting Month 6: May 2017 Slovenia Steering Committee meeting 15 English, Slovenian Month 14: January 2018 Month 22: October 2018 France Sweden Steering Committee meeting Final Conference 15 English, French 120 English, French, Spanish (Italian as passive), German 9