Social partners in central government administrations agrees on work plan and a health and safety statement

(18 December 2013) At the plenary meeting of 10 December, the EPSU-led trade union delegation, TUNED, and the employers, EUPAE, for the central government sector agreed a statement "Towards a healthy workplace".

The statement comes on the heels of the REFIT agenda of the Commission that puts into question EU social legislation including health and safety standards.

It calls upon the Commission to adopt a new EC strategy on health and safety at work to provide a policy framework for both the public and private sectors with clear and concrete action points, including tackling psycho-social risks at work which are on the increase and strengthening labour inspectorates as well as health and safety representatives at the workplace through training and rights. The final version will be sent to the Commission and be available in En and Fr here.

The Committee also endorsed a set of policy guidelines on Human Resources Management with a view to better anticipate and manage change. The guidelines go against the grain of much imposed restructuring as they call for better social dialogue at national level and reiterate that pay must be negotiated with trade unions. They encourage social partners to define a social dialogue framework to deal with any changes -before, during and after- relating to employment, organization of work and contractual relationships, and support a social impact assessment of outsourcing. The text will shortly be available in En and FR here.

Last, the Committee agreed its next priorities for 2014-2015 but more discussion is needed to define the instruments with a view to reach a decision on 24 March. The topics are

- Implementation of the Framework Agreement for a quality service in central government administrations (12.12.12), with a special focus in 2014 on administrations geared towards people in a vulnerable situation i.e. asylum seekers, young unemployed and low income pensioners;
- Workers’ rights to information and consultation;
- Health and safety;
- Youth employment and traineeship;
- Age diversity management;
- Increasing influence and visibility of the Committee on EU policy making.

The next meeting will take place on 24 March 2014.