Yesterday, the EP adopted in plenary its first reading position on the EC Talent Pool proposal, a matching platform connecting job seekers from non-EU countries with EU based companies.
Judging from the experience so far, the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) believes this is a missed opportunity to do justice to those third country nationals hoping for decent jobs and living conditions in the EU. The text adopted by the EP plenary includes no worker complaint mechanisms in case of abuse, no information on rights and access to benefits, no guarantees for rightful recruitment and employment.
A myriad of unscrutinised intermediaries will also be able to recruit via the pool, and they are not regulated at the EU level. More intermediaries means less capacity to detect liability in case of social dumping and fraud, such as fake posting to member states that are or are not part of the Talent Pool.
Moreover, even though member state participation is voluntary, any participating EU country will potentially be an open door to an influx of unprotected migrant workers into the EU.
The ETF would like to reiterate its support for migrant workers’ access to the EU labour market. But they should benefit from same labour, trade union and social rights as EU nationals, they should have access to housing, public services and social protection. Transparent and legal employment conditions that guarantee job quality and wellbeing to its transport workers are a must, no matter where they come from.
The European trade union federations have already sent clear messages calling for the withdrawal of the European Commission Talent Pool proposal, on the grounds that it was premature. We clearly highlighted that the forthcoming Fair Labour Mobility Package, the revision of the European Labour Authority mandate and the Quality Jobs Roadmap would have the potential to cover gaps of the Talent Pool dossier. So would an EU legal framework tackling subcontracting and labour intermediation, as a means to prevent labour exploitation through long and opaque chains.
Unfortunately, our call was ignored by the European Parliament. The EC should now counterbalance the flaws of this soon to be adopted proposal through strong legal guarantees for job seekers from non-EU countries. They deserve decent, non-discriminatory living and working conditions!