Organisation of work: modernising. Follow-up of the Green paper on Partnership COM(1997)0128

Adopting the report by Sérgio Ribeiro (GUE/NGL,PT), the European Parliament welcomed the fact that, in its communication, the Commission calls on the social partners to lay down common objectives and agree a common plan of action to modernise the organisation of work, but regrets that the communciation constitutes only limited progress compared with the "Partnership for a new organisation of work" Green Paper, by failing to: - give examples of new proposals for social legislation; - make specific proposals as to the areas in which it is planned to encourage negotiations between the social partners; - give examples of how a balance might in reality be achieved between flexibilty and social security; - make any reference to the social consequences of modernising the organisation of work. The Parliament calls on the Commission to: - submit a coherent strategy for drawing the line between those areas in which the Commission is to encourage agreements and those in which it is to specify the necessary legislative measures to be taken; - as part of the ongoing overhaul of the Structural Funds, to take account of the need to strengthen lifelong learning and modernised the organisation of work; - in preparation for drawing up the 2000 employment guidelines, to make a detailed assessment of the working time directive (93/104/EC); - consult the social partners on the possibility of negotiating a European directive or collective agreement on the introduction of an entitlement to career breaks and, if need be, to submit the necessary proposals itself; - study the impact of the modernisation of the organisation of work on family lifeand relationships and submit proposals for measures which enable both women and men to combine working life and family life; - submit, as a matter of urgency, specific proposals to encourage negotiations between the social partners, creating the conditions for the organisation of work to be reviewed at this level, including through a partnership for the various branches or sectors; - to make full use of the relevant new provisions of the EC Treaty introduced by Amsterdam to combat discrimination as regards employment and the consequences of the organisation of work in relation to people with disablities, immigration and ethnic minorities. the Community and Member States are also called upon to do more to encourage widening of the scope of lifelong learning, while the social partners are called upon to promote and implement gender mainstreaming in all relevant policies and to develop appropriate mechanisms to this affect.�