The Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Telecommunications

Summary of the initiative

Name
The Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for Telecommunications
Objective(s)
The guidelines provide that teleworkers should be granted equal treatment with employees working in company premises as regards working conditions, career and training opportunities, information and consultation and trade union rights. They establish that telework should be implemented on a voluntary basis while collective agreements should be reached at the appropriate level in order to provide a framework for the introduction of individual telework arrangements. The agreed guidelines are the result of a joint political statement from telecoms operators and trade unions sent as a contribution to the Lisbon Summit in March 2000. The Social Dialogue Committee (Employers' representatives: The European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association ETNO and Workers' representatives: UNI-Europa) recommends all telecoms operators and trade unions at national level to adopt these guidelines in their national collective bargaining practices.

Description of the Initiative

    Sector

    Sector

    Contact Point - Commission
    EMPL F.1.

    Self/Co-Regulation Basic Act

    LEGISLATIVE ACT
    Year
    2007
    Title of Act
    Articles 154 and 155 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union
    PRIVATE ACT
    Year
    2001
    Title of Act
    Guidelines for telework in Europe

    Geographical Coverage

    Global coverage
    Participating Countries
    Austria

    Description

    Problems that lead to the introduction of Self/Co-Regulation and the adoption of the Founding Act
    Risk of discrimination among employees.
    Target Group(s)
    Telecommunication operators and other business resorting to telework; teleworkers.
    Type of Instrument(s)
    (EU social dialogue text) http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/dsw/dspMain.do?lang=en. The EU social partners pursued an autonomous dialogue following the process of social dialogue but resulting in 'new generation agreements or autonomous agreements'. These are not transposed into legal acts and therefore do not fall in the remit of traditional social dialogue. Autonomous agreements or new generation agreements are implemented by the procedures and practices specific to management, labour and the Member States.
    Level(s) at which private rules should be defined and applied
    Type of Financing
    -
    Type of Monitoring
    Conduct an initial survey of compliance capacity of future regulateesConduct regular visits and spot checksInitiate complaints proceduresMaintain database of those bounded by the normsProduce regular reportsReceive complaints and verify if norms were breached or notReflexive dialogue with the - stakeholdersOther
    European Commissionyesyes
    National public authority
    International public authority
    Private regulator (code owner)yesyes
    Private independent party with a mandate (e.g. auditors)
    Self-appointed private parties (e.g. NGOs)
    Succinct description of the type of Monitoring
    No specific scheme, but general commitment. The Sectorial Social Dialogue Committee (SDC) for Telecommunications recommended these guidelines for adoption by the end of 2001, on a voluntary basis and according to each country's laws and collective bargaining practices. The SDC agreed to monitor the adoption of these Guidelines in 2002. While respecting the principle of the autonomy of the social partners, the Commission publishes autonomous agreements and informs the European Parliament and the Council after undertaking an ex-ante assessment as it does for Article 139(2) agreements to be implemented by Council decision. Upon the expiry of the implementation and monitoring period, while giving precedence to the monitoring undertaken by the social partners themselves, the Commission undertakes its own monitoring of the agreement, to assess the extent to which the agreement has contributed to the achievement of the Community's objectives. Monitoring is essentially left for the businesses themselves, though also the representative organisations have committed themselves to monitor and evaluate the code of conduct.
    Type of Enforcement
    Faming, shaming and blamingJudicial sanctionsMembership suspension/exclusionPrivate finesOther
    Private Regulator
    Private independent party with a mandate (e.g. auditors)
    Court system
    Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) / Online dispute resolution (ODR)
    Succinct description of the type of Enforcement
    -

    Results of Commission Monitoring

    Year of last Monitoring Results
    2004
    Scoring
    Link / Reference of Evaluation
    <P>Communication from the Commission, Partnership for change in an enlarged Europe - Enhancing the contribution of European social dialogue, COM (2004)557, 12. 08. 2004 </P>

    Downloads

    SMO self- and co-regulation database - private code 9