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The Employment Committee of the EP voted no to compulsory Sunday working, more rigour in regulating opening hours, wages that allow for a decent life and the application of CLA also to franchises.

On Thursday 17th October, the Employment and Social Affairs Commission of the European Parliament approved its opinion on the “European Retail Action Plan”

The presentation by the EU Commission of the Plan- whereby 11 actions have been envisaged aimed at bolstering the development, innovation and growth of the retail trade sector within the EU- has been the perfect opportunity to submit the usually neglected employment and social aspects’ topics of the sector, to the European Commission.

The opinion being drawn up by the Maltese David Casa (PPE) has been subject to a set of amendments especially made by the Honourable Andrea Cozzolino (S&D) as shadow-speaker for the group of the European Socialists and Democrats and which have all been approved by the deputies of the Employment Commission.

Amendments have also been the result of a fruitful discussion with the Union organisation UNI Europa Commerce, the European Trade Union Organisation, representing more than 7 million workers in Europe.

Laila Castaldo, being politically responsible for the Commerce sector within UNI Europa declared: "We warmly welcome the opinion of the Employment and Social Affairs Commission of the European Parliament and the amendments of Hon. Cozzolino. The MEP has successfully focussed on our main claims in various parts of the opinion.

The opinion rightly identifies the degradation causes of the working conditions of retail workers which lead to a strong insecurity of employment in the sector. The Commission and the Member States are invited to approve adequate measures, acknowledging the contribution of the workers to the development of an internal market for the retail sector and therefore the need for improving the working conditions to re-launch the growth of the sector in this period of economic crisis’’

As a result of the economic recession, the sector faced a considerable loss of jobs and had to impose reduced working hours regimes. The sector is marked by a strong flexibility with fixed term contracts and working shifts on Sundays and bank holiday/public holidays, night and late evening having a negative impact on the health of workers and their private lives.

It is for these reasons that the EMPL Committee urges Member States to adapt their relative policies related to working on Sundays and bank holiday/ public holidays and make it possible to work on Sundays just on a voluntary basis, to be adequately compensated both economically and with compensatory rest periods, and be limited over time. Therefore, the numerous agreements at a national level promoting self-managed working hours should be taken as an example. By so doing, the personnel can plan overtime or supplementary working hours weeks in advance rather than being notified about an overtime at a very short notice and at inconvenient times for workers themselves.

The big distribution traders benefitted the most to detriment of the small and micro enterprises, thanks to their skills in exploiting scale economies, increasing productivities and offering lower prices. This generates great concern as regards social and local cohesion, with the ensuing disappearance of small shops from the central areas of cities and smaller countries in favour of parks and shopping centres outside cities which makes access to primary goods difficult, especially for the elderly and social disabled people.

Even the big distribution has been heavily affected by the crisis, with a consequent loss of jobs over the last few years. Some multinational companies, while maintaining their positive profitability levels, have used the crisis as a pretext to reduce personnel, increase the workload and using wage- integration tools and reduced working hours;

The remuneration of the commerce sector is generally below the average recorded for the overall economy. This triggers shortages of skills within the sector as low salaries discourage highly qualified workers to stay. Therefore, it is recommended to introduce wages that allow for a decent life, in the sector, always in agreement with the social partners whenever appropriate;

What is to appreciate is the reference to safety at work in the Communication of the Commission by the development of the so called “Smart” stores which reduce the risk of injuries for transporting heavy loads. Statistics and reports on accidents and occupational diseases highlight that the commerce sector is deemed as one of the sectors most at risk, with particular reference to the work-related stress and musculoskeletal disorders for non correct postures, on which the European Commission is invited to intervene thus resuming the draft directive abandoned a while ago.

One might share the analysis of the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee, in relation to the fact that the sector is at a high rate of youth unemployment, but which often- reached a certain age and maybe after a permanent contract (afters years of insecurity) and a more decent salary, one is being replaced by younger workers with flexible and less expensive contracts.

Hence, we urge the Member States to set up plans in order to provide incentives for training and professional requalification of older workers.

Among the amendments being adopted, it is worth mentioning the provision of funding not only for innovative enterprises but also for the training of more traditional crafts such as butchers, pork butchers and so on so forth…as there is a shortage of them.

Greater support is highly needed by SMEs as well as innovative and socially responsible co-operatives. Furthermore, there has been the adoption of the amendment which besides demanding a more fierce fight against undeclared work with inspections, it requires the representative commerce associations to expel entrepreneurs who employ “moonlighters”. It is regrettable that despite considering franchising as a useful tool for growth and job creation, in some cases franchisee workers are not being granted the collective agreements in force being applied by the Franchisors. It is regrettable that in the Commission’s plan no reference is made to the social dumping phenomena characterising the sector and leading some multinational companies to invest in countries where the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining have been thwarted.

Now the Opinion will be submitted to the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee’ vote scheduled for November 5th 2013. The text of the Opinion can be found in the Related Files tab.