EFFAT

Representatives from over 20 national agricultural trade unions called for better protection of the workers against musculoskeletal disorders, framework conditions for the setting-up of further observatories at national level and considerations for a European definition of musculoskeletal diseases in agriculture. The discussions took place in Eco-musée, France during 7^th to 8^th of June, in the presence of the social partners GEOPA-COPA and representatives of several labour national inspectorates, specialized centers and institutes.

The general assembly of the Effat agricultural sector, held in Dubrovnik on 6 april 2011 requires that, in the definition of the future CAP the following criteria must be taken into account: 1) that CAP payments be assessed for actual employment on those farms receiving more than a base payment. In future, decoupled agricultural subsidies should be linked not to the number of hectares per farm but to the number of workers per farm (farm owners and partners should be included as workers); 2) the adoption of measures for the professional training, qualification and retraining of workers in order to achieve the objectives or the CAP more fully; 3) the adoption of measures aimed at protecting workers'health and improving safety at work also through encouraging the provision of training and information about accident and illness prevention.

Against the backdrop of the economic migration package promoted by the EU institutions (the Seasonal Workers, ICT and Single Permit Directives) and the rise in precarious work in the EU, the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions reiterate that the political measures undertaken by the EU are heading in the wrong direction.

On 28 January 2011, the European Commission launched the long-awaited “Buying social: a guide to take account of social considerations in public procurement”.

EFFAT welcomes the European Commission’s announcement in its Communication on industrial policy that industry in the European Union is to form the focus of the new EU 2020 Strategy for new growth. The main reason why this is important is that over the last few years the voices of people claiming that the future of Europe’s economy lies solely in the services sector, rather than in industry and agriculture as in the past, have been growing ever louder. Yet a strong industrial base in manufacturing and processing is an essential prerequisite for a smoothly functioning sustainable economy in the Member States.

Please take a look at the new improved website: www.beerworkers.org, the website for organized workers in the “big four” beer manufacturers and their distribution systems.

Today we call for a strong consideration as to the world day for decent work. The social inequality gap worldwide and even in Europe is more and more deepen, workers rights and protection is more and more questioned. 7^th October is the day we can join our efforts and trigger the signal in the whole world that we are still far from having decent work for our workers.

The first international trade union website using social networking tools – beerworkers.org - is online today. Its launch follows a successful conference last week for trade unionists representing workers in the world’s biggest beer companies: AB InBev, SAB Miller, Heineken and Carlsberg.

Here you can find (in Spanish) some facts, figures and challenges discussed in Cordoba at the UGT -Union General de Trabajadores de España - meeting, from 28 July 2010. In annex, you can read (in English) the speech of EFFAT’s General-Secretary, Harald WIEDENHOFER.

This working tool presented in a concrete and pragmatic manner in the form of interactive pages, is accessible to all the players concerned on the joint site of the European social partners in the sugar industry eurosugar.org in three languages (English, French and German).

You can find this article and its documents in several languages on www.effat.org

At the General Assembly of the Food industry, the European trade unions of the food and beverages sector evidenced an increasing variety of new forms of labour, atypical contracts and a worrying rise of precarious work. EFFAT affiliates insisted once again on the need to combat the unsecure, unsafe and dangerous form of work in the meat sector.

Tour guides, tour managers and entertainers - A dream job! – Really? The reality is often different.

Many tour operators have relocated their recruitment agencies to Switzerland, from where the tour guides, tour managers and entertainers are dispatched to their workplaces in the tourism destinations, and which excludes them from information and consultation rights in the country of their origin and in European Works Councils.

In a seminar organized Wednesday by the Social and Democrats Group in the European Parliament, EFFAT underlined that issues like combating social dumping, fight precarious work and labour exploitation lack from the Stockholm Programme and should be part of the Action Plan of the Commission.

Trade unions representing AB InBev workers across Europe have issued a joint statement condemning management’s plan to cut 10 % of the European workforce and warning of possible European actions if things don’t change.

EFFAT and GEOPA launched a CD to support the members of the social partners’ organisations of agriculture within the process of the social dialogue in the new member states and in the accessing countries of the European Union.