protecting young people in traineeships from precarious work situations
Jan Willem Goudriaan, General Secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions, one of the European trade union organisations to negotiate the agreement, commented: “This agreement makes it clear that trainees aren’t a source of cheap labour. It means that trainees will benefit from collective agreements already in place and recognises the key role of trade unions in ensuring quality traineeships. It strengthens protection for young people starting out in our sector.”
Maurits Derksen, Chair of the Working Group Social Dialogue within EURELECTRIC, the association representing the employers within the EU electricity sector, added: “This agreement is an important step making sure that trainees all over Europe find the electricity sector a safe and pleasant place to work. As the electricity sector is going through a big transition, it is vital to offer high quality traineeships to young people.”
Sylvain Lefebvre, Deputy General Secretary of industriAll European Trade Union, stated: “Today we have reached an important step which brings our Sector Social Dialogue Committee to another level of maturity. The agreement we signed is striving to protect young people in traineeships from precarious work situations and we are determined to promote good working conditions and opportunities for young people in Europe to start a career in our sector.”
Signatories have undertaken to work together to promote the implementation of the agreement’s objectives. The working conditions for trainees at company level should be subject of discussion between the social partners, employers and trade unions, according to national practices based on the standards outlined in the agreement. The agreement sets out a framework for traineeships covering:
- working conditions
- educational objectives
- the role of supervisors
- duration of traineeships
- compensation
- proper recognition and validation of the
knowledge, skills and competences acquired
You can find the full text of the agreement here: http://www.epsu.org/article/electricity-sector-trade-unions-and-employers-sign-sandmark-agreement-traineeships
For further information or comment please contact:
For industriAll Europe: Corinna Zierold: corinna.zierold@industriall-europe.eu
For EPSU: Guillaume Durivaux, gdurivaux@epsu.org
For EURELECTRIC: Lisa Wolf, lwolf@eurelectric.org