Tourism & Culture

Further work on new rules on traineeships is needed as the Hungarian proposal disappoints

04
December 2024
By Editorial Staff

No agreement on new rules on quality traineeships was reached during an EU Council convened at the Ministerial level for Employment Policy. EU Member States’ positions diverge, specifically on the new directive proposed by the European Commission in March. The directive aims to support trainees’ access to their labor rights under EU and national law. The final objective is to prevent employers from disguising regular employment relationships as traineeships.

EU Ministers did not adopt a proposal for a non-binding text of recommendations on a reinforced quality framework for traineeships. The EU executive urged Member States to deliver adequate social protection for trainees in line with Member State national legislation and improve the quality of traineeships to ensure their fair pay. The package was tabled to prevent employers from disguising regular employment relationships as traineeships.

The newly minted EU Commission Vice-President for Social Rights, Roxana Minzatu, spoke out directly during a public session and said that the compromise text proposed by the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council “distorts the objectives of the initial Commission proposals.”

According to Minzatu, the proposed directive’s scope of application was too limited to training workers in open-market traineeships. “This means that only 24% of pay trainees are estimated to be in such traineeships,” she remarked.

She also disapproved the weaker version of the text proposed by Hungary on the determination of trainees’ correct employment status. Minzatu said that “it is not coherent with the original policy intention that was to combat fictitious traineeships.” The text “also seems to excessively restrict the introduction of the anti-discrimination clause included in the proposal and relating to the need to apply equal treatment in terms of pay.”

Nevertheless, the EU Executive will not withdraw its proposal, Minzatu stressed during a press conference. She vowed to strive for further work to cover as many trainee cases as possible and that the EU has the tools “to check and verify the legal status of their work and make sure that their work is protected and valued.”  The rift among Ministers forced the EU Council Presidency to hand over the work to the Polish government, which will lead the legislative activity at the EU ministerial level in the first semester of 2025.

EU Ministers also adopted a text of conclusion on labor and skills shortages. Member States aligned on a general call to support training and education, especially for people currently underrepresented in the labor market.

The non-binding text focused especially on people of working age who are economically inactive or underemployed.

EU countries are called to help these under-represented groups – women, low-skilled workers, older workers, young people, people from ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities – to gain access to employment in underserved sectors. This has to be done through upgrading and retraining opportunities in areas where labor market needs have been identified, addressing individual and structural barriers to labor market participation, tackling the gender pay gap and combating gender stereotypes, promoting fair, decent, and stable working conditions; and improving, in cooperation with the Commission, labor, and skills forecasts.