Quality of traineeships, the EU tries to protect youth workers

Having overcome the strong opposition of the majority of States, a Council Recommendation has been approved. A written traineeship agreement between the trainee and the company, plus minimum periods of break will be compulsory. No mention of retribution, though. European Youth Forum: “The Recommendation as it stands is weak”

It seemed almost impossible to get a result, unit some months ago. Yet, the Council has given the green light to a Quality Framework on Traineeship, the text that establishes some minimal protections for trainees, in order to guarantee the validity of the training experience. Perhaps not a revolutionary tool, yet more than the “zero result” expected, given the numerous constrains by Member States to a European intervention on the matter.

The first step, after a long debate, came on December by the European Commission – which proposed to Member States a series of regulations to increase protections for trainees under several points of view, from training target to working conditions. However, the idea was not acceptable for the majority of Member States which, at the European Council, brought about a pitiless fight, trying to weaken the framework. The most probable scenarios, then, were a postponement of the decision, or a complete weakening of the text, to meet Member States’ requests. Yet, nothing like this happened.

“The initial proposal has been weakened, yet we risked much more, given the negotiations,” explained sources close to the text. At national level, the only country supporting the proposal was Italy, partially backed by France and Spain, while all the other Member States were strongly opposed to a European regulation on traineeships. Here came the Greek Presidency mediation: with amendments and adjustments, they obtained the support of all Member States except the UK – which has already said that the framework will be totally ignored.

The Recommendation requires that traineeships shall be based on a written traineeship agreement, covering precise targets such as learning content, educational objectives and working conditions, limited duration of the traineeship, mutual commitments, clear indication whether trainees will be paid or not. Duration should be “reasonable,” not exceeding a six-month period, with the exception of a “justified” longer period. It shall be possible to interrupt the traineeship period, provided that a written communication is sent with a reasonable advance period. Employers are encouraged to issue a certificate of the competences acquired by trainees.

Lost in the process, yet, the date on which government were asked to implement the Framework: the Commission wanted it to be implemented within the end of 2014, now there is a generic “as soon as possible” indication. In addition, the language has been considerably softened: Member States shall not “require” companies to apply some protections, yet they shall “encourage” them.

Being a Recommendation not binding in its own nature, several stakeholders are already complaining about the weakness and inefficacy of the tool. The European Youth Forum, for instance, that have been working on this Framework for years. “The Recommendation as it stands is weak,” said Giuseppe Porcaro, General Secretary of the Forum, which groups 99 European youth organizations. The clearest deficiency is the fact that the issue of appropriate remuneration of interns was not tackled – the Recommendation does not indicate it as biding (as proposed by Italy), traineeship providers will be just asked to disclose in the vacancy notice whether the traineeship will be paid, and how much. Furthermore, the Framework does not refer to internships that are part of academic or vocational training. In addition, another key area that has been neglected in the proposal is the working conditions and rights of interns: the Recommendation refers to ensuring that the rights of interns are respected, yet it offers no concrete recommendations to do so: the access of interns to social protection is not guaranteed. It was hence necessary to do more.

And more can be done by Member States, said László Andor, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion: “some of the elements could have been more in line with the Commission’s ambitious proposal.” Now “it is crucial that all Member States now fully and concretely implement the quality framework as soon as possible, with the active involvement of employer and employee representatives,” underlined the Commissioner.

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