The European Commission adopted, on October 23, its work program for 2008. On the social menu: dealing with restructurings, revising the directive on European works councils as well as that on company transfers and the recast of the legislation on work-related musculoskeletal disorders. (Ref. 070882)
In social terms, the Commission plans the following legal initiatives:
- a draft regulation on the European Company status for SMEs, in order to enable them to develop throughout all EU countries thanks to common rules and a uniform status;
- a draft directive on the conditions of entry and residence of seasonal workers in order to establish common entry and residence conditions for these workers to reinforce protection against excessive exploitation;
- a draft directive to modify the “EWCs” directive to make it more coherent and efficient by reinforcing the role of EWCs, in particular in anticipating and accompanying restructuring;
- a draft directive amending the Directive 92/85 the protection of pregnant women, and women who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding in order to enhance the reconciliation of professional and family life;
- a draft directive amending the Council Directive 2001/23 on transfers of undertakings with the goal to clarify its provisions concerning cross-border transfers, increasing legal certainty and workers’ protection;
- to bring together regulations concerning activities which can cause musculoskeletal disorders (manual handling of loads and ergonomics of the workstation) to gather together the existing legislation on this topic to make it clearer and to provide better protection of workers against these risks.
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