EUROPEAN COMMISSION Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities DG Social Dialogue, Social Rights, Working Conditions, Adaptation to Change Social Dialogue, Industrial Relations Brussels, 11 June 2009 SECTORAL SOCIAL DIALOGUE COMMITTEE FOR SEA FISHING PLENARY MEETING held on 4 May 2009 in Brussels DRAFT MINUTES Chairperson: María José González Martinez (Spain, Europêche) Participants: TRUJILLO CASTILLO JUAN MANUEL CC.OO/ETF DOMINGUEZ SEGADE MANUEL UGT/ETF KERKHOFS JORIS ACV TRANSCOM/ETF SANCHEZ MATEO VICENTE CC.OO/ETF BOGAARD NICO CNV/ETF BELLAVISTA MASSIMO COGECA BLONK COR EUROPECHE/COGECA BEJAR ROCIO EUROPECHE MARIN LUIS FRANCESCO EUROPECHE POFFERI LEONARDO COGECA QUENTEL ARMAND ETF BODMER AXELLE EUROPECHE VAN DER ZWAN MENT EUROPECHE/COGECA HUDSON JAMES EUROPECHE/COGECA ROUX SYLVIE ETF SPERA LIVIA ETF ALFONSO PHILIPPE ETF SMIDT FLEMMING 3F/ETF KRISTENSEN KARSTEN 3F/ETF VICTOR IVAN BTB/ABVV/ETF Commission européenne, B-1049 Bruxelles / Europese Commissie, B-1049 Brussel - Belgium. Telephone: (32-2) 299 11 11. Office: J54 0/30. Telephone: direct line (32-2) 29+3222993120. www.ec.europa.eu/socialdialogue dirk.hadrich@ec.europa.eu
VERNAEVE GUY EUROPECHE/COGECA GONZALEZ MARIA JOSE EUROPECHE HADRICH DIRK EC GALLIZIOLI GIORGIO EC RUIZ MONROY MARIA JESUS EC TRICART JEAN-PAUL EC HUBERT MANUEL EC PAARDEKOOPER JOOST EC BRECZEWSKI NICOLAS EC 1. Adoption of the agenda The agenda for the meeting has been approved. 2. Adoption of the report from the meeting held on 1 December 2008 The minutes of the meeting on 1 December 2008 have been approved. The chairperson regretted that alternative dates were not offered for replacing the foreseen meetings on 3 February and 10 March and that the invitation for the 23 March meeting would have been sent out only 48 hours before the meeting. Jean-Paul Tricart (DG EMPL) explained that these meetings were planned by the Commission but cancelled by the social partners and that it is therefore difficult to offer alternative dates. He underlined that the invitation for the meeting on 23 March had been sent out 1 month before as usual. 3. The social clause in partnership agreements in the fisheries sector Jean-Paul Tricart (DG EMPL) summarised the discussions of the meeting on 23 March that was mainly held to analyse the situation of the social clause, to improve the comprehension of the Madagascar problems but not to take any decisions. It was also important to give all parties access to the relevant documents and letters that had been exchanged concerning the social clause and ILO wage standards. At the 23 March meeting the issue had been introduced by ETF that wanted the social clause properly be applied so that remuneration levels of local fishermen would not be lower than those applicable to the EU crew and in any case not lower than the ILO standards. It had been highlighted that the Madrid meeting of 10 April 2007 was convened in the context of the involvement of the European Parliament blocking the renewal of the fishing partnership agreements. The meeting resulted in a unilateral declaration of the tuna fishing ship owners. In line with the reference of the social clause to ILO standards but taking into account the absence of an ILO text on wages for fishermen, the declaration explicitly referred to the application of the ILO minimum wage for able seamen to tuna fishing. According to Rudi Delarue (Current Director of the ILO Brussels office and former DG EMPL official who participated in the Madrid meeting at the request of DG MARE), there was no doubt that a reference to the ILO 2
minimum wage for seamen needs to be seen in connection with the other relevant ILO standards on working time and that overtime etc. has to be paid. The Dutch employer regretted not to have been invited to the meeting on 23 March. He saw the ILO text on wages only as a recommendation that could be applied by national organisations. In any case, the local social partners could always negotiate better labour conditions if necessary. The French employer pointed to differences between the fishing sector and the merchant navy. On the basis of these differences and as stated in Bermeo the figure for the ILO minimum wage should apply but not the complete ILO rules on working time and other wage elements. In addition, the French employer found the problems would exist only with exceptional cases at Madagascar but there would be no other cases. The Spanish employer that had also taken part in the Madrid meeting underlined the voluntary character of the Madrid declaration and explained that no further problems would have been observed in practice. ETF considered the Madagascar case not to be isolated and assumed this would only be the tip of the iceberg. The ITF London office would look at the problem to evaluate the situation. ETF s priority is to solve the problems in Madagascar. Afterwards, the Committee could carry out a more general discussion on the need to improve the text of the social clause. In response to the Dutch employer, Jean-Paul Tricart clarified that the ILO rules for able seamen wages were a resolution that had been approved and were applicable. DG EMPL would like to solve the problem of interpretation by providing its experience and expertise. In no case wage documents could set rules without a link to working time. Standard wage documents always refer to the normal working time otherwise there would be for both sides risks of paying too high or too low wages. He referred to concerns expressed by the European Parliament concerning the renewal of the fisheries agreements and the application of the social clause. Against this background the Madrid declaration had to be adopted with urgency. Giorgio Gallizioli (DG MARE) informed that the ETF letter explaining the Madagascar problems would be answered soon as the Commission was about to take a stance on the complaint lodged by a Malagasy trade union. He said that, though DG MARE had not yet taken a position on the interpretation of the wages rules, DG MARE's position had been outlined in the letter of 5 November 2007 which has been circulated to all members of the Committee. The social clause is inserted in the protocol of fishery partnership agreements and as it is therefore part of Community law. The Commission has to ensure that it's properly complied with. The clause refers to the Madagascar wage level which would also be relevant in this respect. He noted that wage negotiation is a matter that should be dealt with by the social partners. He stressed that the unilateral declaration of Madrid, undersigned by the vessels owners convened by national administrations, had not been endorsed by the Commission and that its content could not be used to give an interpretation of the social clause of the protocol. So far no information had been received about problems with the social clause in other third countries. However, should DG MARE be informed that problems exist, it would launch an evaluation of the clause, which at the moment seems not to be necessary. 3
Europêche/COGECA wanted the evaluation of the social clause to be performed in close cooperation with the social partners. Jean-Paul Tricart pointed to the possibility for the social partners to further assess the application of the social clause because the Committee would have the original ownership of this clause which has been developed and approved in the SSDC Sea Fisheries. ETF found it necessary to get about this problem as soon as possible. If workers would be employed on an EU vessel the social clause should be applied to all of the workers regardless of their country of origin. ETF underlined that decent pay and equal conditions should be ensured to avoid social discrimination. A definitive reaction by the Commission would be necessary to make the social clause properly working in practice. It was stressed that in the future solutions will have to be found trough negotiations and not through unilateral declarations. The chairperson saw a need to come back to this issue. An evaluation of the application of the social clause would be really necessary, as well as reliable information on average wage being paid in Madagascar and being linked to the standard of living in the country of origin. Once DG MARE will have sent its reply to the complaint submitted by the Malagasy trade union, an SSDC working party should be set up with a view to overcome the problem. 4. Second phase consultation on reassessing the regulatory social framework for more and better seafaring jobs in the EU Nicolas Breczewski (DG EMPL) explained the background of the second phase consultation of the social partners under Article 138(3) of the EC Treaty on reassessing the regulatory social framework for more and better seafaring jobs in the EU. The second phase consultation paper explains the content of the envisaged proposal and seeks an opinion and/or recommendation from the social partners on it. Nicolas Breczewski also stated that the social partners might decide to initiate negotiations in view of concluding an agreement concerning some of the fields covered by the consultation. In such case they should inform the Commission about their wish. Both ETF and Europêche/COGECA referred to the substantial contribution and suggestions that have been sent by the Committee in the framework of the first phase consultation. Replying to questions Nicolas Breczewski explained that the scope of the second phase consultation would not cover the whole scope of the first phase consultation. The committee decided to reply to the consultation as soon as possible. 5. European Commission's Green paper on the CFP reform Joost Paardekooper (DG MARE) explained the background and the reasons for the Green paper on the CFP reform (annex). The reform should deliver a fisheries industry that is profitable, economically independent and harvesting from healthy marine ecosystems, supply of seafood from sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, which 4
contribute to the development of coastal regions, simpler and less costly policy. It was expected the measures to reduce the fishing capacity would finally lead to less employment in the catching sector. More information can be found on the website: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/reform Europêche found several studies on health and safety, the public image, recruitment etc not being taken into account. In general, the presented DG MARE initiative would more look like an initiative to destroy the fishing industry. The definition of small scale fishing would not be clearly set. The measures for fishermen that would lose their jobs due to the new policy would not be mentioned at all. The added value that is supposed to come from the 'Control' Regulation has also been forgotten when the weaknesses of the control system were described. ETF found the RACs would not work as they should do. ETF wanted to contribute to the Green paper discussion in particular concerning sustainability and social aspects. The Committee agreed to comment on the Green paper, focusing on the social issues with a joint opinion that should be adopted in the December plenary. 6. Sectoral councils for training and employment Manuel Hubert (DG EMPL) reported on the Commission's attempts to anticipate change and to identify future and emerging skills. A feasibility study has been launched to deal with the setting up of sectoral councils. Such councils already exist in several Member States and they deal with employment and training issues. Different countries have different bodies in place. Most of the existing councils have on their board representatives of the social partners, representatives from the education and training systems and representatives from the public authorities. Different options for activities should be developed by the study to exchange views at EU level views without any binding obligations. However, the results of the feasibility study would only be expected in October and they should be further discussed and presented in the Restructuring Forum in December. In addition to this study, a call for proposals was launched with the aim to co-finance social partner initiatives concerning preliminary actions to prepare for the setting up of sectoral councils: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catid=630&langid=en&callid=205&furthercalls=yes Deadlines for submission of proposals are 18 May and 1 September 2009. Europêche was interested to submit a proposal for a project because a number of related issues have already been developed in the fisheries sector. 7. Ongoing revision of the functioning of sectoral social dialogue Dirk Hadrich (DG EMPL) reported on the currently ongoing review of the functioning of sectoral social dialogue on the basis of Art. 5.4 of Commission Decision of 20 May 1998. An analysis of the contributions that have been received as reply to the 5
questionnaire of October 2008 has been launched with the view to draw conclusions from the 10 past years. Some issues were found to be essential for the future development of sectoral social dialogue: autonomy of social partners, types of results, concreteness of discussions, visibility, transparency, administrative capacity, representativeness, input from external experts, etc. An extraordinary Liaison Forum has been organised recently to initiate a very open brainstorming process with the social partners and other experts. A more detailed presentation of the conclusions should be arranged for the social partners before the official Commission Communication would be prepared before end 2009. Europêche/COGECA referred to the huge number of declarations and contributions that have been produced by the Committee over the last years thus drawing attention to its importance. ETF warned the Commission not to focus too much on the number of agreements that were concluded because this simplistic approach would not take into account the qualitative dimension of the SSDC products. 8. ILO convention 188: possibility to negotiate a social partner agreement on the transposition of the convention into EU law ETF suggested setting up a working group that could go through the ILO convention 188 with the view to identify elements worth to be strengthened and made binding through a joint agreement. Without such an implementation the content of the ILO convention 188 would only morally be binding. The entry into force of the agreed provisions could be linked to the entry into force of the ILO convention in order to avoid disadvantages in terms of global competitiveness. Despite problems identified for self employed fishermen and for fishing in inland waters, Europêche/COGECA expressed a positive attitude towards possible negotiations in this context. Europêche/COGECA referred to slow ratification of the ILO convention and to an ILO expert meeting in February 2010 which should work on the development of port state control guidelines. Dirk Hadrich encouraged the social partners to consider negotiations because this would be seen as priority activity that could lead to concrete results for which the Commission should provide special assistance. 9. Latest developments of the project on social dialogue in New Member States ETF reported on the kick off meeting that focussed on the main part of the project and in which a questionnaire has been prepared. The questionnaire should be sent out within the coming week. Although the project s initial programme included two main events, it was suggested to hold just one event of a longer duration. 6
10. Request for co-financing a seminar on the CFP and its socio-economic impact for the fisheries sector The social partners considered to prepare another project to address the reform of the CFP. A number of meetings could be organised with a view to also involve external experts and to discuss in addition a range of other important issues such as wind farms etc. 11. Any other business NEXT MEETINGS: 3 July 2009 21 October 2009 17 December 2009 (PL) 7