WFPMA

General developments
The European Council has reaffirmed the commitment of the European Union to include more countries from central and eastern Europe. In an attempt to maintain momentum in the current accession negotiations, the Belgian Presidency held a round of talks with six candidate countries. It is the first time that enlargement discussions have been held during the holiday period in July and was intended to show enthusiasm, on the part of the EU, in bringing the negotiations forward to an early conclusion. The candidates for accession to the EU are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

However, in a referendum in June, the Irish electorate rejected the Treaty of Nice by a majority of 56% to 44%. The result of the referendum leaves the Irish government unable to ratify the Treaty. Since it must be ratified by all 15 EU member states in order to come into force, the process is effectively stalled until agreement is reached. Therefore the future of the new treaty, aimed at preparing the EU for enlargement, is still unresolved despite the general atmosphere of enthusiasm to proceed with enlargement.

Even before the atrocities in the USA, many companies in Europe had been facing significant restructuring and redundancies as a consequence of the downturn in the global economy. For some years companies have been restructuring and this has been accelerating over the last 12 months. Those companies which have successfully restructured across borders within the EU have done so as a result of careful, farsighted planning. People management professionals have had a strategic role to play in the restructuring of their organisations. Where situations have been handled skillfully, they have shown that it is not enough merely to meet the legal obligations on information and consultation in each member state. It is also essential to consider both these aspects at a transnational and national level when looking at the process and consequences of implementing redundancy programmes.

Employment
Employment growth in the EU in the first half of 2001 has been better than anticipated. The Commission claims that this positive development is largely due to structural changes in EU labour markets. However, there are also significant variations in employment patterns among member states. The interventionist approach to employment within Europe has been used ostensibly as a way of trying to harmonise employment conditions within Europe, but employers also fear that in reality this can make it difficult for Europe to be competitive. Of course, with tragic events in the USA and the threat of a recession becoming more real, European governments fear that the benefits of unemployment falling from nearly 10% in 1998 to just above 7.5% in the early part of 2001 will be shortlived. Severe job losses have already been sustained in the financial and airline sectors and more are expected in other sectors, especially if there is a protracted conflict in the war against terrorism.

Social and employment policy
The European Commission has initiated the first stage of consultations with the European social partners on the need for legislative action on data protection in the employment context. The Commission is concerned that divergent practices in member states result in unequal protection in this area for workers across the EU. For example, some member states have provisions contained in either employment or criminal law which restrict the right to monitor employees’ email and internet use; in others these issues are regulated by codes of practice.

In June the European Commission adopted its strategy for raising the quality of jobs in the EU and improving living standards. The initiative is called ‘Employment and social policies: a framework for investing in quality’. Investment in strategy forms a key part of the employment strategy agreed at the Lisbon European Council last year, which aims to make the EU the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world.

Employee relations
The European Commission has adopted its Green Paper promoting a European framework for Corporate Social Responsibility. The Green Paper, launched jointly by Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Anna Diamantopoulou and Industry Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, aims to bring together the various approaches currently being adopted by companies on the issues of social and environmental responsibility. According to the Green Paper, companies are increasingly realising the benefits of adding social and environmental considerations to their traditional economic ones. It argues that an increasing number of companies understand the link between profitability and good ethical and environmental practice in terms of ability to attract and retain the most skilled employees.

The long-awaited European Company Statute (ECS), first proposed over 30 years ago and finally agreed at the Nice European Council last December, has run into an unexpected hurdle, in the form of a disagreement between the Council and the European Parliament over the relevant legal basis for its eventual adoption. The disagreement concerns the Directive on worker information, consultation and participation which accompanies the ECS Regulation. The Directive is aimed at ensuring that the establishment of a European company does not entail a weakening of the right to information, consultation and participation previously enjoyed by employees in one or several of the founding companies.

In July, the European Council formally adopted its common position on the Directive on worker information and consultation in national companies. It is assumed that the current draft Directive will be formally adopted either later this year or early next year. Unlike previous EU initiatives, where there has often been a two or three year gap between adoption at EU level and member state level, this proposal could be different. In the face of further mass redundancies across Europe, it is predictable that trade unions will press for early adoption of the Directive.

Also in July the Women’s Rights Committee of the European Parliament adopted a report calling for greater efforts to achieve equal pay for equal work. This follows Europe-wide calls for a more proactive approach. At present women earn on average 28% less than men for equal work or work of equal value, despite equal pay being one of the oldest areas of EU regulation. In response the Commission has established a group of experts to look at statistical data on the subject. Equal pay is also being included as an objective in the 2002 employment guidelines. And the Committee has called on the social partners to reinforce the participation of women in salary negotiations to bring to an end the ‘ghettoisation’ of women in certain low paid jobs.

Some 10 years ago the European Commission funded comparative research on the participation of employees in the profit and equity of their businesses. The PEPER report was compiled by experts from each member state. One recommendation of the report was the harmonisation of rules between member states. Many of the recommendations were seen as problematic by member states. The recommendations on equity participation had little effect but now the Commission wishes to look at the issues again and has called for tenders for a new research project concerning employee stock options in the EU and USA, with the USA being used as a benchmark. When the new report is eventually produced, it is expected to be more influential, because there is now more political support in several member states who want to see greater employment and fiscal policy harmonisation.

Social security
In July the European Commission published its Communication on pension reform, entitled ‘Supporting national strategies for safe and sustainable pensions through an integrated approach’. As the title suggests, the Commission has been careful to balance the widely acknowledged need for coordinated pension reform with member states’ own pension requirements. The communication takes as its starting point the fact that most old-age pension systems in the EU are not sustainable in their present form, given the steady decline of the working population and the resulting rise in the old-age dependency ratio expected over the next decade. The Commission therefore proposes an integrated framework for the exchange of information on national strategies for securing adequate and sustainable pension provision in the long term. It proposed that member states agree on adequacy of pension, financial sustainability of public and private pension schemes and modernisation of pension systems in response to changing needs of society and individual.

External relations
The European Commission has unveiled its strategy for improving global social governance and promoting core employment standards. The communication suggests ways in which the EU can strengthen the application of core employment standards globally by improving, in particular, the use of International Labour organization(ILO) instruments. According to the Commission, global market governance has developed more quickly than global social governance, and citizens increasingly perceive a need for a more equitable global economic system which also promotes social development and fundamental rights. The EU’s position is that it wants to ensure that basic labour rights are supported everywhere by everyone, but not by using a sanctions approach. It insists that the 1998 ILO declaration on basic workers’ rights must form the basis of any discussion of trade and labour standards. The aim is for the EU to offer support for building up the institutional capacity of the world’s poorest nations and to improve the effectiveness of the complaints procedure under the ILO.

EAPM news
The 20th Congress of the EAPM, hosted by the Swiss association SGP, was held in Geneva at the end of June. It was an outstanding Congress in terms of the professional content of the programme and the networking opportunities it provided for delegates. Over 900 people attended and benefited from the bringing together of people from all over Europe, as well as some delegates from other parts of the world. The EAPM recognises the huge achievement of Benno Gartenmann, Christoph Schaub, Dieter Wyrsch and their team for enabling such a dynamic event to take place.

The new Executive Committee was approved by the Delegates’ Assembly, held prior to the EAPM Congress. Members of the Committee are:

Discussions are in progress to bring into membership an organizationin Denmark following the withdrawal of the Danish Management Forum. It is hoped that the Danish Personnel Managers’ Association will be making a formal application to the Executive Committee meeting in January.

The EAPM will be marking its 40th anniversary next year in France, at the invitation of the French association, ANDCP. The seminar, which will take place before the Delegates’ Assembly (24 and 25 June) will bring together members of all EAPM associations plus some French HR colleagues. The topic is likely to be either the European Social Dialogue, the Social Balance Sheet or Mergers and Acquisitions.

A project team has been put together, under the leadership of Pieter Haen to look at the private internet platform, the linK, which was launched at the Congress. Delegates have been able to register with this site, enter their own skills profile (from a list of 24 competencies) and share knowledge, experience and best practice with others expressing common interests. Members can set up private and exclusive networks where confidential documents and comments can be shared. The project team is looking at the feasibility of EAPM taking over linK at the end of the six-months period during which it is being run by a commercial company.

Preparations are under way for the next EAPM Congress in Rome (24-27 June 2003). The theme for the Congress will be ‘TechNet age challenges for personnel managers’ and the Italian association, AIDP, with the Congress Officer Antonio Golini, is putting together an International Programme Committee to start working on the intellectual content of the Congress in the next few weeks.

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