Further involvement of social partners in the processes of licensing foreign personnel seems to be foreseen by the proposal officially submitted yesterday to the social partners by the Minister of Labour, Yiannis Panagiotou, in order to address objections, mainly from the trade unions, regarding the new employment strategy for third-country nationals.
The proposal/suggestion from the Minister of Labour was communicated in writing yesterday, just a few hours before the scheduled new meeting on the issue, which took place in the afternoon and, as we are informed, was substantive and constructive.
During yesterday’s meeting, the fourth in a series recently, clarifications were requested by all sides regarding the minister’s proposal, while both the trade unions and the employer organisations requested time for final positions and possibly the submission of proposals for changes to the proposal, as they mentioned that the issue will be presented to their collective bodies.
Therefore, it was decided that the positions of all involved parties will be sent to the Ministry of Labour by the beginning of next week, aiming for a new meeting next Tuesday, where it will be clarified to what extent the emerging consensus will lead to an agreement.
According to information from Phileleftheros, with his proposal, the Minister of Labour suggests a significant upgrade of the Monitoring Committee of the existing employment strategy for foreigners, in order, as we have written before, to have a more active involvement and information of all partners in the whole process.
Essentially, as conveyed to us, the proposal favours a new monitoring mechanism of the strategy, chaired by the Minister of Labour himself, with the participation of all social partners, which will address various issues concerning the processes of licensing foreign personnel and the management of matters related to the living conditions of third-country nationals, in order to exercise more effective control.
Furthermore, through this mechanism, which will be an evolution and upgrade of the existing Monitoring Committee of the strategy, prospects seem to be created for updating the strategy itself and the existing procedures, which as known, were decided by the previous government, causing since then the strong reaction of the trade unions.
According to Phileleftheros, based on the proposal, social partners will have real-time information on various requests for the employment of foreign personnel, but not “executive authority” for approval or rejection, which remains with the Ministry of Labour.
However, in order not to disrupt the constructive atmosphere that seems to be forming around the issue, after almost a year of tensions, all sides are cautious and restrained in the way they convey any information about the ongoing dialogue, although the impression created is that there are, after a long time, good prospects for an agreement on the issue, which could be acceptable to everyone.
This, however, will also be evident from the reactions of the members, both of the trade unions and the employer organisations, to the Minister of Labour’s suggestions, something expected to be clarified from next week.
We remind you that the new employment strategy for foreigners has caused from its first adoption (by the previous Government) the reaction of the trade unions, which claimed that there was not sufficient social dialogue on the issue, and for about a year now, they have been requesting a revision of it, emphasising among other things the need to restore the technical committees that operated with the previous procedures, which were previously informed about the requests for the employment of foreign personnel by sector.
At the same time, employer organisations, despite the acceleration in the examination of requests, were asking for further reduction of bureaucracy and procedures and facilitations regarding requests from groups of companies.
The strongest reactions to the strategy are expressed by the trade union movement, which recently even warned of mobilisations, claiming that the existing procedures undermine collective agreements and contribute to the deregulation of the labour market.
With what, however, seems to have been presented yesterday on the issue, it is considered that achieving an agreement depends to the same extent on the positions of both sides.
