EWCs: Timeline for new Directive uncertain

The EU Parliament's lead rapporteur advocates reinserting elements from his 2023 resolution and is pushing for changes to the Directive before the end of June…. While the Irish Minister says he will use the revision of the EWC Directive to make changes on EWCs accessing dispute procedures… 

What's next: The Parliament will vote on the matter on April 2. It is important that Member State governments are made aware that what is being proposed by the Parliament are not minor technical amendments to the 2009 EWC Directive but changes that would have a profound impact on European labour relations dynamics and would hand substantial and unwarranted powers to trade unions. 

MEANWHILE, the Irish Minister for Employment, Neale Richmond TD, told a Dáil (Irish parliament) committee that he will use the revision of the EWC Directive to make the necessary changes on EWCs accessing dispute procedures. 

The Minister says the Belgian Council of Ministers presidency believes changes to the EWC Directive could be agreed quickly. But is this timeline credible, given the failure of the Belgians to get the Platform Workers and the CSDD directives through the Council? Sinn Féin opposition members of the Dáil committee withdrew their amendments, for now, but reserved the right to reintroduce them as events unfolded. 

Additional Material: 

One new addition from Radtke that caught our attention was this proposed wording change to Recital 17: 

“…can bring judicial, and where applicable, administrative procedures, in respect of all their rights under this Directive, including the right to form and join trade unions.” [Our underlining] 

This wording is repeated in a proposed amendment to the relevant paragraph in Article 10 in the main body of the text. This is clearly an attempt to circumvent national laws on this highly sensitive issue.

• Radtke’s latest draft report
• Our detailed observations on this new Radtke report.  
• Transcript of the Irish parliament committee discussions HERE.