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Vesa Jussila, Executive Director, Sales and Marketing Professionals SMKJ, Finland, president of UNI Europa Commerce working group for commercial sales representatives

Commercial Sales Representatives in UNI Commerce:
"Everything in this conference room has been sold by commercial sales representatives"

Sisters and Brothers,

Believe me: everything in this conference room has been sold by commercial sales representatives - in fact several times. First as ideas about materials to be used to the architects and designers of this building, then to the constructors and finally to the hotel management.

All tables and chairs here and this microphone has been sold by a professional, even the garment we wear has been sold by a sales representative to the retail shop where we bought it.

So it means that we are talking about a very important group of professionals in the chain of commerce.

Dear friends and colleagues,

I am speaking on behalf of two percent of us.

My estimate namely is that in a modern, industrialised service society from one to two percent of the total workforce are employed as business-to-business sales representatives.

So is the case in my union, which represents 26 000 employees, roughly one percent of the total workforce in Finland.

By definition a commercial sales representative shall mean an intermediary who has continuing authority to negotiate the sale of goods (but not services) on behalf of an employer or to negotiate and conclude transactions on behalf and in the name of the employing company.

Last year the UNI-Europa Steering Group for Commercial Sales Representatives completed a questionnaire study on employment and labour relations of this specific group; 10 unions from 8 countries answered this very comprehensive study.

These figures also show that commercial sales representatives are organised rather poorly or not at all in too many countries.

I use this opportunity to call upon all unions present here to take into consideration this special group of employees and actively work for the involvement of commercial sales representatives in their trade unions.

Our Steering Group – the other members coming from MSF/UK and Danske Saelgere/Denmark – has also held the first ever Social Dialogue Meeting with the representatives of EuroCommerce in February last year followed by an enlarged UNI-Europa - EuroCommerce secretariat meeting in October. This meeting is part of the process of defining the issues for the social dialogue with EuroCommerce.

The trade union movement in all parts of the world is faced with the need to change its policies and its organisational forms. It has to meet both the challenges of a new environment, marked by globalisation of the economy and the information society, and the demands of a largely new world of work.

I find commercial sales representatives a very interesting group also when it comes to new organisational forms and new ways of recruiting members.

Nearly all sales reps have access to the Internet. Thus, over 50 percent of new members in my union joined via our website last year, it means over 1000 members. This also shows that marketing trade union membership via internet and by direct e-mail is possible already now. It is also very cost-efficient.

An essential element in the European social model is the consequent follow-up of the minimum social standards policy in the view of the harmonisation of working and living conditions.

Although European integration and globalisation have a number of common features such as the liberalisation of trade and the circulation of capital they are not the same.

The EU is different in the sense that it has political institutions capable of regulating the market. This regulation is and remains incomplete, but it has nevertheless made possible a more balanced integration process.

This brings me to

THE EUROPEAN DIRECTIVE ON COMMERCIAL SALES REPRESENTATIVES

The Council of the European Communities issued in 1986, a directive on the harmonisation of legislation concerning independent (it means: self-employed) commercial representatives. Now all the Member States have implemented the Directive in their national legislation.

The application of the directive was limited to concern only a self-employed commercial representative and not a salesman as an employee.

The Directive guides most rights and obligations of a commercial agent.

In particular, a commercial agent must:
(a) make proper efforts to negotiate and, where appropriate, conclude the transactions he is instructed to take care of;
(b) communicate to his principal all the necessary information available to him;
(c) follow reasonable instructions given by his principal.

A principal on his half must:
(a) provide his commercial agent with the necessary documentation relating to the goods concerned;
(b) deliver his commercial agent with the information necessary for the performance of the agency contract, and in particular notify the commercial agent within a reasonable period once he sees that the volume of commercial transactions will be significantly lower than expected.

The parties may not derogate from the provisions of these articles. So they set a standard for individual agreements which otherwise are very unregulated.

Although this Directive itself is in power for self-employed commercial sales representatives only, it has affected national legislation covering also employed sales representatives.

Denmark, Finland and Norway – the latter even not a member of EU - opted for a law jointly covering commercial representatives and salesmen.

If a representative under an employment relationship did not have the security according to the directive at all, it would be easy to get round the directive's regulations by concluding an employment contract specifying only minimum terms.

This would be the case, particularly since in most countries the labour legislation does not contain any regulations concerning commission salary or any regulations on the rights and obligations of an employee acting in the position of a commercial sales representative.

This issue will become all the more significant when the enlargement of the European Community continues and many countries that are now outside the Union have to harmonise their legislation in accordance to the directive.

At the moment the UNI-Europa Steering Group for Commercial Sales Representatives is working for a "check list" which will help sales representatives when negotiating their individual job agreements.

It is nationally important to improve the terms of employment, working conditions and occupational environment of salesmen. These issues are among the matters to be handled through national legislation or the collective bargaining system.

I do hope that the unions organising employees in the commerce sector will also tackle the issues important for sales representatives.

This should be done not only in Europe and in Latin America, where I know there are good working contacts between UNI-affiliated unions who organise sales reps, but also globally since the work of commercial sales representatives knows no national or regional boundaries.

Doing this would be a welcomed way of receiving more union recognition and appreciation from this specific group of workers – and it would be an excellent way of getting new members in our UNI-ranks.