What changed between the resolution motion and the adopted text

Added:8. Acknowledges that achieving digital and green objectives will create opportunities and might at the same time require transformations or restructuring processes in many sectors; stresses that social dialogue in the anticipation and management of these processes is essential to safeguard and create quality jobs and manage unavoidable job losses with enough support and can contribute to achieving a climate-neutral economy that sustains its social, economic and environmental standards; highlights that restructuring processes must respect fundamental workers’ rights, such as the right of information and consultation; calls on the Commission and the Member States to take action to reinforce and promote collective bargaining, in full respect of the autonomy of the social partners and of the right of collective bargaining; emphasises that workers should be beneficiaries of restructuring, including when they transfer to a new equivalent job within their current firm or sector, or as they reskill to transfer to a job in a future-proof sector, all while being adequately assisted and compensated;

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Added:9. Emphasises that developments leading to restructuring processes should be anticipated by management, and plans for changes should start as early as possible to prevent insolvency and job losses, while involving workers’ representatives and trade unions at an early stage to ensure meaningful social dialogue, including in the case of preventive restructuring frameworks as provided for in Directive (EU) 2019/1023; calls on the Commission and the Member States to work in close cooperation with social partners to identify risks early and develop comprehensive plans to address employment and economic stability needs; supports, in that regard, investment in the training and capacity building of trade unions and workers’ representatives engaged in restructuring processes;

Added:10. Stresses that restructuring processes also have an impact on the supply chain and can pose a considerable risk to indirect employment across the EU; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support companies, including SMEs, undergoing restructuring processes in order to integrate into their plans the impacts on other European companies in their supply chain; further calls on the Commission and the Member States to support companies indirectly impacted by these restructuring processes to mitigate the consequences on employment;

Added:11. Stresses that the EU must address shortages of skilled workers in strategic sectors in order to enhance its competitiveness; points out that addressing skills shortages and supporting workers who need to transition to a new job following a restructuring process are complementary objectives; emphasises the fact that sufficient access to reskilling and upskilling is a precondition for a successful transition to a new job in another sector; urges the Commission to take account of this in its proposals for a clean industrial deal and the Union of skills, including by expanding the role of Centres of Vocational Excellence; calls on the Commission to improve the recognition of skills across Member States and to ensure that its programmes better address the needs of vocationally trained experts;

Added:12. Underlines that restructuring processes must not be used as a pretext to violate workers’ information and consultation rights, as well as the right of collective bargaining and trade union rights; deplores the violation of the fundamental rights of collective bargaining and of information and consultation before a decision is made; believes trade unions should be equipped with sufficient resources and capacity to assess a company’s decision to restructure and to engage the support of an independent expert; calls on the Commission, the Member States and the social partners to put in place further safeguards to ensure collective bargaining and to prevent the misuse of restructuring processes as a means to forego employers’ obligations; underlines that penalties should be imposed in instances of infringements and non-compliance;

Added:13. Is alarmed that European company law provisions, as well as their interpretation in some legal cases, are creating loopholes and are enabling the circumvention of mandatory national board-level participation rules;

Added:14. Emphasises that one of the most effective ways to prevent the need for restructuring is through the proactive anticipation and management of change through collective bargaining and information and consultation; urges the Member States to ensure quality upskilling or reskilling, life-long learning, employee training and career development support; points out that upskilling and reskilling should be prioritised as far as possible before job cuts are considered;

Added:15. Underlines that gender equality should be an integral part of transition strategies and should be mainstreamed across related policy and legislative measures to strengthen the fairness of our societies; believes it is essential to ensure equal treatment and equal access to economic opportunities for women, paying attention to the most vulnerable, such as women with disabilities, single mothers, women belonging to minorities and migrant women;

Added:16. Considers that an industrial plan agreed with the social partners is essential to promote the economic viability of European industrial companies and, in the worst case, prevent closures and forced redundancies; calls on the Commission and the Member States to support companies, in particular SMEs, to prevent forced redundancies; calls on the Commission and the Member States to put in place mechanisms that help to avoid forced redundancies, such as temporary support programmes to protect employment during transitions, avoiding the loss of strategic industrial capacity and skilled workforces; calls on European enterprises and employers in the process of restructuring to devise and implement plans at an early stage in order to avoid job losses and maintain decent working conditions and high social standards, to the extent that this is possible; demands stronger protections against unfair dismissals and demands the necessary support for workers affected by restructuring to give them access to retraining opportunities and support, such as income support, including while searching for new employment; reaffirms that the dignity and rights of workers as well as the economic and financial sustainability of the company are important objectives to consider in the context of restructuring processes;

Added:17. Welcomes the Commission’s announcement that it will propose a clean industrial deal that, in addition to speeding up decarbonisation, maintains and creates quality jobs in the green and digital sectors in the EU; emphasises that the clean industrial deal should focus on strategic industries, avoiding the delocalisation of production and loss of jobs, while strengthening the European social model and social justice;

Added:18. Calls on the Commission, in close collaboration with the social partners, to consider the establishment of a framework directive to address the challenges and complexities associated with employers’ obligations in subcontracting chains and labour intermediaries in Europe to ensure decent working conditions and the respect of worker’s rights; calls for the framework directive to include measures regulating the role of labour intermediaries, other than temporary work agencies, and to introduce an EU general legal framework limiting subcontracting and ensuring joint and several liability through the subcontracting chain, in order to end abusive subcontracting and protect workers’ rights and their claims over issues such as wage arrears, the non-payment of social contributions, bankruptcy, disappearances and ‘letterbox subcontractors’ who do not pay as agreed; calls for this directive to include provisions ensuring the respect of information and consultation rights and the right to collective bargaining, including for subcontracted workers;

Added:19. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to support the social partners in their efforts to include issues related to the green transition in collective bargaining at the appropriate levels; highlights that collective agreements can cover the impact of an undertaking’s activities on the environment, the protection of workers from the effects of climate change and the impact of the green transition on working conditions; calls on the EU and the Member States to further support actions and initiatives that will incentivise employers and workers to adapt to the green transition and to make collective bargaining a key tool for ensuring balanced production models that protect the environment and create quality jobs;

20. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.