DG EMPL/D2/RD

FINAL

The draft agenda is approved.

Eurocommerce (R. Baker and C. Maes) introduces the draft joint statement as prepared by Eurocommerce. CSR is a very broad issue and Eurocommerce is of the opinion that the joint statement should concentrate on labour related elements of CSR.

UNI- Europa (Jan Furstenborg) very much welcomes the draft statement. It's important that the social dialogue embarks on CSR. The joint statement could be concentrated on labour relations elements. Uni- Europa will consult his members in order to finalise the draft by the end of December 2001. Uni- Europa will concentrate on the major issues.

Uni- Europa proposes to develop joint and concrete initiatives on CSR after December 2001. According to Uni-Europa There is a need for a certain standardisation, a common denominator and a follow-up.

In that context UNI- Europa is of the opinion that the social partners in commerce don' t have to start from scratch as they can build on the joint declaration on fundamental social rights, joint positions and agreements on training, telework and ongoing work on mature workers, social inclusion,….

European commerce companies should respect the fundamental social rights worldwide. Most companies do so but Uni- Europa refers to recent union- busting activities in the US based subsidiary of a leading European retailer Pinault-Printemps-La Redoute.The European management should take up it's responsibilities and urge the local US management to respect the fundamental social rights.

Several Uni- Europa members ( J. Hoppe of HK Handel, M. Almgren of HTF and J. Lindblad of HAF and M. Wolf of GPA) refers to specific topics and initiatives such as the organisation of national round tables on CSR taking into account relevant elements for the national level, working environment and the enlargement.

Eurocommerce confirms its willingness to continue work and to develop concrete initiatives. These could build on the existing joint documents and relate to issues such as quality of work, the global UN compact (not SA 8000 because this is a specific private initiative) and social inclusion although important dimensions of social inclusion are related to action taken by public authorities. The initiatives should also be relevant for SME's.

Uni- Europa commerce will hold a meeting of leaders of affiliated organisations on 22/11/2001. The draft text will be circulating to affiliates with the recommendation to accept it. Uni- Europa will inform Eurocommerce of possible amendments. As soon as both organisations can agree on a joint formulation Eurocommerce will send out the text to it's steering committee for decision.

The Danish members of both Eurocommerce and Uni- Europa inform the committee of the ongoing joint initiatives in Denmark on social inclusion in commerce and they confirm their willingness to organise a joint conference under the Danish presidency during the second half of 2002.

> Eurocommerce and Uni- Europa accepts the proposal made by their Danish affiliates.

However Eurocommerce underlines that the European social dialogue agenda for 2002 is very heavy (including the fact that Eurcommerce is contractor for several important B3 4000 and ESF projects). Eurocommerce requests the Danish social partners to take care of the practical arrangements for the conference.

Uni-Europa reports that certain activities in commerce are seriously affected such as the upper end of commerce, shops in holiday resorts heavily relying on air travel, airport shops. Uni- Europa hopes that business will refrain from overreacting such as fast cuts in personnel by mass redundancies. Companies should take CSR seriously. The Irish Uni- Europa affiliate is reporting that income in airport shops is heavily affected because workers are partly paid on commission. Social partners must ensure that exploitation cannot get a chance and they should adopt a pro- active approach by providing training and preventing social exclusion. The Austrian Uni- Europa member is underlining that more controls of citizens may not affect fundamental rights.

Eurocommerce has discussed the issue internally and could not draw general conclusions. Wholesale seems to be more affected than retail and more remote parts of the supply chain could also suffer. Also commerce in holiday regions heavily relying on air travel could be affected negatively. Probably b2b ecommerce models could become more important and some sub sectors such as home equipment are increasing their business. The French member of Eurocommerce is also reporting a slowdown in visits by commercial representatives in wholesale and the events of the 11th September could be to the detriment of commerce by direct contacts. In wholesale ecommerce business models could gain.

Eurocommerce proposes that the consequences for the wholesale can be follow-up by the social dialogue working group on wholesale.

The president confirms that information of the work done by the Commission such as the Communication on quality in employment and social policy is available and that the employment committee is actively discussing the issue in preparation of the social affairs and employment council of December.

The request for funding under the B3 4000 budget line of the EU has been introduced by Eurocommerce on behalf of the social partners. Eurocommerce will subcontract the research to a university or a research centre related to a university.

Concrete results of the analysis are expected by May 2003, at least when the Commission services accept the project. The project will be directed and supervised by social partners. A broad and active participation of national social partners will be of paramount importance.

Both Uni-Europa and Eurocommerce report on the meeting of the commercial sales representatives working group that was held on 11/10/2001. The change in the business models of wholesale and ICT are having an important impact on commercial sales representatives. The meeting of the working group was a positive one taking into account the rather complicated and diverse employment and industrial relations situation (workers, economically dependant workers, self- employed, …).

The working group will try to figure out how the social dialogue can contribute in guiding the management of change. The working group requested the Commission services to contact the new centre for managing change in Dublin in order to find out how the observatory could assist social partners.

http://www.eurofound.ie/about/emcc.htm

9.2. Uni-Europa and Eurocommerce will held secretariats meeting to organise the follow-up of this meeting.