a) Follow-up to the Lisbon Conference (14 April 2000)

On behalf of UNI-Europa Commerce, Jan Furstenborg stated that the Lisbon Conference had been a very positive event and had been welcomed as such by many participants. It was important that the social partners were able to translate the essence of the discussions into a joint declaration which they officially signed at the end of the Conference. This text will therefore constitute a good basis for future work and for future activities aimed at developing the commerce sector according to the changes and challenges it is and will be faced with.

Commerce remains a very dynamic industry. However, a change process, both in technological as in structural terms, is inevitable and must be positive and to the benefit of the sector, not in the least through its capacity to offer high quality jobs. The approach to be adopted by the social partners must be aimed at decent working conditions, high profile jobs and a working environment in which workers could feel at ease. This approach is the only alternative to an approach which does not take into account social aspects of the commerce sector. The approach must also be pro-active and aimed at an insight on how the inevitable changes will effect workers.

The Lisbon Conference has certainly been a first constructive contribution to this process. Nevertheless, some speakers representing both the trade unions and the companies, warned against redundancies and major job losses due to the introduction of new technologies such as self-scanning. Their interventions stressed the need for a joint approach by EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa Commerce.

UNI-Europa feels that the Sectoral Dialogue Committee could approach the current and future challenges, as defined and discussed at the Lisbon Conference, through a variety of actions:

• Structural and technological changes must be accompanied by a social "package". Social partners could therefore define jointly a set of good practices, guidelines or recommendations on what social measures are needed to avoid that changes will lead to social dumping;
• The excellent joint text of 1998 related to vocational training (Memorandum on training in the retail trade) should be adapted to the new context; the issue of vocational training must also be activated within the framework of the Sectoral Dialogue Committee in order to deal in a more intense and concrete way with the needs of vocational training in European commerce;
• In view of the recent joint initiative EuroCommerce/Eurochambres, the "Global Quality Service Scheme" for ensuring trusted transactions between e-retailers and their customers in and between the countries of Europe, UNI-Europa appeals to EuroCommerce to consider whether it would be useful to include in this scheme social and environmental criteria;
• Still regarding e-commerce, social partners could discuss the adaptation of the social responsibility principle to the broader e-commerce context;
• Concerning the follow-up of the issues related to the eradication of child labour and the promotion of other labour conditions, UNI-Europa appeals to EuroCommerce to undertake any follow-up of the 1996 Joint Child Labour Declaration and the 1999 Joint Agreement on Fundamental Rights and Principles at Work on a joint and common basis with UNI-Europa and within the framework of the Sectoral Dialogue Committee;
• Although negotiations between UNI-Europa and EuroCommerce on the issue of mature workers are underway, the social partners should broaden their discussion so as to include equally aspects such as pension schemes, retirement conditions, etc. leading up to a set of recommendations;
• The protection of other weak groups such as disabled people must also be discussed within the Sectoral Dialogue Committee;
• Finally, the social dialogue on employment has to lead to a common view, established by serious trade unions and serious companies, on a decent level of income and decent working conditions so that commerce can fully compete with other services sectors.

Ray Baker, speaking on behalf of EuroCommerce, agrees with Jan Furstenborg that the Lisbon Conference has been a success enabling the social partners to demonstrate that they are capable of putting serious and major issues on their joint agenda.

Changes in the sector are going on, often at such a fast speed that it becomes very hard to fully understand what their impact really is. Social partners have therefore to remain cautious and carefully examine which possibilities are open to them to try and accompany change.

After the Lisbon Conference it is now necessary to define some common areas of priority, to be put on the joint agenda: self-scanning, changes in the workplace, mergers and acquisitions, lifelong learning and qualifications, mature workers (including those wishing, for different reasons, to stay active longer), whole supply changes, and the overall need to look beyond the confines of the organisations EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa. At the same time, a joint agenda needs to be focused.

It was decided that the secretariats would draw up a more concrete proposal for a joint agenda, based on the conclusions of the Lisbon Conference and on the statements made today.

b) Recent agreement on the fight against racism and xenophobia

Both organisations welcomed the recent signing of the agreement which they consider to very important. The secretariats will reflect on ways to promote and to follow-up this joint text.

c) On-going negotiations on tele-work and on mature workers

EuroCommerce informed that it had now obtained the comments of its Social Affairs Committee on the draft texts. UNI-Europa welcomed this development but calls upon EuroCommerce to become more active and more constructive in these negotiations.

d) Follow-up of the joint texts signed by the commerce social partners within the framework of their social dialogue

EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa agree that the time has come to analyse the implementation that has been given to their previous joint texts. Some good practices have already been put into place in some Member States. A examination of how these good practices link to the European joint texts could therefore be very useful. The secretariats will develop concrete ideas on this issue.

II. Presentation of a project "SERVEMPLOI: Innovations in Information Society – Women's work, Expertise and Opportunities in European Workplaces", by Dr Juliet WEBSTER – Trinity College, Dublin

The study essentially deals with the retailing and financial services and is managed by a project team consisting of representatives of different countries and backgrounds, including UNI-Europa. The project has started in 1999 and will run till the end of 2001. 16 women from the retail sector and 16 women from the banking sector are being closely and individually followed throughout the 3 years of the project.

Some preliminary results are already available. They largely confirm, as far as retailing is concerned, the on-going restructuring and technological innovation. In terms of skills and learning, these changes imply an increasing move towards life-long learning which much more responsibility for vocational training put on the employees. Some systematic and highly structured training systems exist at national level and can be used as good practices.

All participants welcomed the presentation of this project which they though very interesting as it seems to confirm their findings and analysis regarding the changes currently taking place in the commerce sector. In reply to some questions from the participants, J. Webster equally provided the following information:

III. European Social Fund project: "The Development of Future European Job Profiles"

a) Presentation of the website

b) Status: Where are we now?

Kim Pedersen (Dios a/s), co-ordinating researcher, informed the participants on the different phases of the project.

c) Presentation of the four future European job profiles within commerce

An overview on the job profiles was given: on the nature of the material on the basis of which they have been developed, what main changes in commerce have an impact on these profiles, how different definitions are being used (basic and specific skills, basic and specific knowledge, basic and specific attitude) and how these definitions apply to the different job profiles.

The European job profiles identified are the following:

• Office worker in wholesale;
• Warehouse worker in wholesale;
• Travelling sales representatives in wholesale;
• Retail sales person in a supermarket;
• Shop assistant in an SME (which should be part of a special package specifically designed for SME's);

d) Discussion on the European job profiles and on principles for a good job design

In the discussion that followed the presentation of the job profiles by the researchers, comments were made relating to fact that some job profiles or some aspects of job profiles already exist in traditional commerce and hence to the need to stress the changes these job profiles need to be adapted to in order to comply with the on-going changes in European commerce; the issue of protection of privacy and the on-line rights for on-line workers; the need to assess well the variety of tasks related to jobs within an SME.

It was decided that the results of today's discussion will be integrated in the working documents to be presented to the Steering Committee for decision at its next meeting.

e) Requirements for future training programmes

The participants agreed that full priority should be given to the development of the content of the training programmes that will be developed for the job profiles which will be selected by the Steering Committee and that the final format of these programmes, as well as the training techniques, could be decided upon at a later stage. In line with previous declarations, participants stated again that the main objective of the training programme must be the development of a set of guidelines (content of a programme) allowing different end users to put them into practice and application with the aim of adapting existing job profiles to the changing needs and thus allowing employees to adapt to the modified working environment.

f) Presentation of the Spanish situation

M. Devesa (EuroCommerce, CEC/CCC, Spain) gave a detailed overview of the situation with regard to vocational training in Spain. He stressed the fact that training for e-commerce still represents a very low percentage of the existing training programmes.

Participants welcomed this presentation which clearly shows the need for the development of a European wide training programme adaptable to the often very different situations prevailing at national level.

*****

UNI-Europa Commerce: A. Cauda Tortay, F. Dias da Silva, A. Francescini, H. Gartz, J. Furstenborg, E. Reichelt, A. Rodriguez Bonillo, L. A. Ruiz Cardin, A. Selin, M. Simonsen, P.E. Tobiasen, S. Veh

Dios a/s: L. Olsen, K. Pedersen

Trinity College, Dublin: J. Webster

European Commission (DG EMPL/D.1): H. De Clerck