Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States

Background

Social dialogue plays an essential role in shaping economic, labour and social policies aimed at promoting upward convergence in living standards and working conditions between and within Member States. The EESC highlights the specific role of social partners which should be fully recognised and respected in social dialogue structures and processes, as laid out in its opinion on Strengthening social dialogue.

Although the labour market performed well in 2023, growing labour and skills shortages are hampering economic growth and competitiveness, and risk slowing down the green and digital transitions. Also, despite employment growth in recent years, gender inequalities in the labour market remain widespread, while the employment gap between people with and without disabilities in the EU remains high.

A further challenge the EU faces is the urgent need to boost new skills and individuals' employability, given major economic and social transformations brought about by the green and digital transitions, an ageing population and the emergence of new working patterns. On top of this, the rise of AI is impacting employment and the organisation of work, while social protection systems also need to be adapted to the fast-changing employment landscape.

The 2024 European Semester (in which the European Commission provides strategic economic guidance to Member States) set out common priorities for national employment and social policies, and updating the 2023 guidelines to include actions to address skills and labour shortages and improve basic and digital skills.

Given this context, this opinion provides the EESC's position on the Guidelines for the employment policies of the Member States to help them address the challenges currently faced in the EU. 

Key points

The EESC:

• welcomes the proposal for updated guidelines on employment policies, aimed at fostering a competitive and sustainable economy, reflecting new labour market needs;
• highlights the importance of upward convergence and of enhancing the European Semester’s role in coordinated economic policy responses;
• stresses the need to strengthen social partners' roles through social dialogue and collective bargaining and the involvement of civil society in employment reforms and policy-making;
• emphasises the need to boost labour supply and improve access to quality jobs, addressing business challenges flowing from staff shortages;
• supports the Commission's call for stronger inclusion policies to promote equal opportunities in employment and career development;
• highlights the importance of strengthening skills for the green and digital transitions and of ensuring access to high-quality lifelong learning;
• calls for fair and decent wages aligned with productivity and competitiveness, promoting collective bargaining and effective data monitoring of wages, while respecting national practices and the autonomy of the social partners;
• calls too for ethical and socially sustainable AI deployment in workplaces, assessing the impact on jobs and work organisation in terms of both opportunities and potential risks;
• stresses the need to modernise social protection to cover all workers, regardless of their form of employment, adapting tax and benefit systems and monitoring redistributive effects;
• encourages further development of policies for affordable housing, homelessness prevention and the effective use of EU funds;
• calls for stronger policies to combat irregular work, promote quality work, improve workplace health and safety, and prevent the spread of informal and precarious working conditions.

The text of the draft opinion can be found here.

Additional information

Section: Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship (SOC)

Opinion number: SOC/811

Opinion type: Mandatory

Rapporteur: Giovanni Marcantonio

Date of adoption by section: 3/10/2024

Result of the vote: 77 in favour/0 against/0 abstentions

Date of adoption in plenary: xxxx – xxxx

Result of the vote:   in favour/ against/ abstentions

Contacts

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Email: Leonard.Mallett@eesc.europa.eu  

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Email: Bartek.Bednarowicz@eesc.europa.eu