UNIT 11: Towards better legal framework and its improved implementation

Research carried out by the AGRI-EW project has collected views and ideas of different stakeholders in five EU member states (Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain) and two candidate countries (Serbia, North Macedonia) on how to enhance workers participation in agriculture.

Stakeholders in many countries, especially workers’ representatives, would like to see their national legal frameworks improved, with information and consultation rights defined more precisely.

Some of proposals for improving the legal framework include:

• Extending the scope of information and consultation rights to a wider range of situations and decisions which may affect workers’ rights and interests, such as restructuring, business closures, business transfers and implementation of new technologies,
• Ensuring better transparency and access to information relevant for decision-making, by legally defining efficient and transparent communication mechanisms, and obliging employers to provide complete and timely information about financial situation, performance and prospect of companies,
• Stronger legal protection of workers’ representatives from unfair dismissal,
• Different forms of incentives for employers who support workers’ participation (such as lower taxes or social contributions).

Improvement of legal framework is an important issue in many countries, but it can’t by itself solve the problem. Legislation can only give certain rights to workers, but their utilisation depends on workers’ initiative and general attitude of employers.

While it is not expected that the legal framework could address all peculiarities of labour relations in agricultural sector, this could be achieved through agreements between the social partners.

In this way, information and consultation mechanisms could be adjusted to better suit seasonal nature of work in agriculture and predominance of small, family-owned farms. Encouraging meetings, exchange of views and experience, as well as joint trainings of social partners could be a step forward in this direction.

Many workers are not sufficiently familiar with European and national legal framework and their information and consultation rights. Therefore, more efforts should be undertaken to inform the workers and their representatives on these rights.

This can be carried out by the trade unions, but also by employers’ organisation and other stakeholders. Such activities could include information campaigns, guidance materials and training for workers and employers with the aim of understanding the benefits of workers’ participation and legal framework.

It is particularly important to raise awareness among employers and their organisations on mutual benefits of workers’ participation, as evidence shows it can lead to better and more productive working environment and increase company resilience to different crises.

General promotion of social dialogue could also be beneficial for workers’ participation, especially in case concrete provisions on information and consultation are included in collective agreements.

Collective agreements could be especially useful in providing more specific and detailed provisions on the right to access company information and confidentiality, as national legislation is not always clear enough in regard to this.

Concrete cases of good practice should be documented, exchanged between the countries and promoted.

Awareness of impact of climate change on agriculture, importance of green transition and wideness of its effects on working conditions in agriculture must be increased.

Workers must be consulted and involved in decisions related to agricultural practices and strategies to mitigate climate change. This can be achieved, among other, through creation of joint environmental committees on company level. Workers or their representatives can also be included in different brainstorming sessions or specialised working groups or committees.

Workers’ participation would also benefit from workers receiving more training and education on understanding impact of climate change on agriculture and sustainable agricultural technologies and practices.

Workers should be encouraged to propose and implement innovative solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change. This way they can play a key role in assessing the impact of climate change on working conditions and in identifying measures for their improvement.

Occupational health and safety is also the field with a lot of potential for improvements, which could be achieved through stronger involvement of workers, to the benefit of both sides. For example, workers could be given active role in planning, implementation and evaluation of all activities aimed at prevention of occupational risks.

Employers could also benefit from more information and consultation with the workers on issues related to company performance and business management, which are in many countries rarely subject to such procedures.

While employers would obviously keep their prerogative in managerial decisions, stronger involvement of workers can produce positive effects in corporate decision-making processes, bringing first-hand experiences and fresh ideas.

Proposals of stakeholders from five EU member states and two candidate countries for enhancing the legal framework and practice of workers’ participation in agriculture in their countries can be found in national action plans in next unit.