On 28 January 2025, the EMPL Committee adopted a draft resolution on social and employment aspects of restructuring processes: the need to protect jobs and workers’ rights.
This resolution calls on the Commission to develop ambitious binding legislation in the field of employment, including a directive for a Just Transition in the world of work, a directive to include measures regulating the role of labour intermediaries, a framework directive associated with employers obligations in subcontracting chains and labour intermediaries as well as an EU general framework directive limiting subcontracting (..) in addition to a new framework directive on workers information and consultation and participation for European companies.
Besides, the EMPL Committee also calls on Member States to ensure the right to free training for all workers during working hours and emphasises that trade unions shall be empowered to evaluate any company´s decision to restructure, with the right to call on the support of an independent expert paid by the employer.
Ceemet considers this resolution too far-reaching and represents a potential for many other constraints on the competitiveness of companies, particularly SMEs. The MET industries widely use subcontracting, and introducing rules that limit subcontracting would negatively impact our sector. Likewise, temporary agencies and intermediaries often facilitate the recruitment process and assist in hiring, for example, when it comes to third-country nationals: they thus serve as a necessary link between the companies and employees. In our view, the optimal solution would be to enforce the rules that ensure the proper functioning of agencies and intermediaries.
Furthermore, we believe that introducing a directive for a just transition in the world of work could undermine the autonomy of social partners, who are the relevant actors when addressing employment-related challenges.
At a time when the European Union is struggling with reindustrialisation, it is utterly contradictory to call for more legislation that will hamper the development of globalised companies, slow their decision-making processes, and limit their capacity to subcontract when they operate with thousands of companies throughout their supply chain.