European Commission releases initiative on strengthening social dialogue – What’s in it for Europe’s Roma?
On 25 January 2023, the European Commission put forward an initiative on strengthening social dialogue, aimed at empowering social partners to deliver on their role to ensure social fairness and democracy at work, and to boost Europe’s prosperity and resilience. The initiative includes a Council Recommendation, which sets out how EU countries can further strengthen social dialogue and collective bargaining at national level, as well as a Communication on reinforcing and promoting social dialogue at EU level.
ERGO Network has engaged with the preparation of this initiative during 2022, with a view to raise awareness on the specific concerns of Roma workers. We contributed to the call for evidence issued by the European Commission in October last year, based on our Snapshot on social dialogue and involvement of workers. We have reviewed the proposed initiative in light of this input.
- Read our full response to the initiative here!
We warmly welcome this initiative of the European Commission to ensure that social dialogue continues to fulfil its key role for just, resilient, inclusive, and democratic societies, particularly at a time when several Members States are attempting to shrink trade union powers. However, the approach does not seem to be inspired by a view to contribute to inclusive labour markets, through supporting diversity and giving a voice to the most disenfranchised, including vulnerable groups.
We are very disappointed to note that there is no reference to Europe’s Roma in either the proposed Council Recommendation or the Commission communication. Moreover, there is no mention of ethnic minorities or ethnic background, or migrant or refugee workers, or other key groups of workers facing discrimination in employment. In fact, there is no mention of racism or discrimination in the two documents.
We further appreciate that the initiative clearly points out the decline in trade union coverage over the past three decades, however these findings are disaggregated by gender, but not by any other indicator relating for example to race and ethnicity, age, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity etc. Equally disappointingly, the European Commission puts forward no proposals on how to improve trade union membership. This should have been a key objective of the initiative, as a means to strengthen legitimacy and credibility of social partners.
We salute that the initiative makes a strong plea for trade unions to take into account the emergence of new forms of employment including the self-employed, and to make efforts to include these workers in their structures. This can be very positive for Roma workers, often excluded from the traditional labour market due to widespread antigypsyism, and hence forced to engage in atypical forms of work to survive.
In the context of the evolving nature of labour markets, it is regrettable and inaccurate that both documents use “company” in an interchangeable way with “employer”, thus completely overlooking labour relations in the public and the third sector, where adequate social dialogue to protect workers’ rights is just as needed.
It is high time that the European Commission put forward a similar initiative, codifying, supporting and strengthening civil dialogue. Social fairness and democracy must be guaranteed for the whole of society, not just in the workplace.
Finally, we are pleased to see the European Commission’s commitment to promote social dialogue and collective bargaining in the context of the enlargement process, supporting candidate countries to strengthen their social dialogue processes.
For more information about our work on the Roma employment, please contact Amana Ferro (a.ferro@ergonetwork.org), Senior Policy Adviser in the ERGO Network staff.