Training, employment, CSR, sector skill council on agenda of electricity social partners

(25 March 2013) The European social partners in the electricity sector continued their work on a number of burning issues and concluded with agreements. The social partners adopted three texts:
- A framework of actions on competencies, training, including an endorsement of the idea of a youth guarantee.
- A position on the consultation on quality framework on traineeships.
- A joint contribution to the consultation on the social strategy for the Energy Community.
The texts were signed by Jan Ruden, vice-president of the social dialogue committee for EPSU.

Related to the discussion on training and competencies is also the work of the social partners to establish if it makes sense to create a sector skill council for the industry. The social partners addressed a number of questions for the Commission that will need to be explored further.

Tim Steinweg made a presentation (see below) of the work of SOMO for EPSU on the way the electricity companies are reporting and using the global reporting initiative system. The employers raised a number of relevant questions and voiced some critique. CSR will be further discussed in the committee also in light of proposals of the European Commission to come forward with proposals for the disclosure of non-financial information.

A controversial discussion took place with a representative of the European Commission DG Energy over the employment study that is being undertaken. The union side raised a number of critical questions related to the models used and their assumptions. The social partners insisted that they should be more involved and that the results should be presented to the social dialogue committee. A representative of the research team and the Commission would be invited to the next meeting of the committee. The study is part of the follow up on the Energy Road map 2050.

The EPSU delegation for this work group included colleagues from France, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden. The EPSU deputy General Secretary participated for EPSU. A previous report on the work of the EPSU delegation is available here.

- Tim Steinweg presentation of the work of SOMO for EPSU