— last modified 27 April 2017
Commenting today on the Commission?s proposals for a Pillar of Social Rights, EuroCommerce Director-General Christian Verschueren said:
“We are strongly in favour for a healthy work-life balance and making it easier for women to enter or re-enter the workforce. Retail and wholesale employs 29 million Europeans, and a larger number of women than the rest of economy ? for example, 2 out of 3 retail employees are women. But EU legislation on parental leave or measures to create less flexibility in the ways people work may undermine the EU’s overall objective of creating growth and jobs for Europe’s citizens.”
We are committed social partners, but we, like other employers’ associations, believe that the priority for Europe remains the creation of economic growth and quality jobs. Measures which make it harder to employ people, and burdens which can mean the difference between survival and disappearance of smaller shops, are a step in the wrong direction for feeding the nascent signs of economic growth in Europe.
Our sector has been a major motor of employment, but it is dependent on consumers’ sentiment about their economic situation. Retail and wholesale are therefore directly affected by what is happening in the real economy. Since 99% of retailers and wholesalers are SMEs, and a large proportion of these microenterprises, their survival is dependent on a vibrant European economy, and burdens on employment being kept to the minimum necessary to ensure fair treatment of employees. These small companies will be particularly hard-hit by having to bear the incremental cost new measures on parental leave, and greater inflexibility in working time.
Verschueren added: “The danger in the Commission approach is, in the name of enabling more people to enter the workforce, they will actually make it more difficult for companies to employ people. Depriving a person of a job is surely the worst thing a policy can do for social rights, and reducing the jobs available by adding unsustainable and unnecessary burdens on business will do exactly that.”
