Social partners sign declaration on implications of electricity liberalisation

In November 2000, the European-level social partners in the electricity industry –the Eurelectric employers' organisation and the EPSU and EMCEF trade union organisations – signed a joint declaration on the social implications of liberalisation in their industry.

The European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU), theEuropean Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers' Federation (EMCEF) and the electricity supply employers' organisation Eurelectric agreed a joint declaration on 27 November 2000, stating that the parties are aware of the social and employment implications of the continuing process of opening up and integrating European electricity markets. The declaration notes that a recent study funded by the European Commission has shown that 250,000 jobs were lost in the sector between 1990 and 1998, although it stresses that restructuring took place in a "socially responsible way". However, the parties to the declaration believe that restructuring is likely to continue, and that the following key issues should be considered:

• how to deal with any redundancies arising ;

• the impact of workforce reductions on service quality and network maintenance in the industry;

• the forecasting and avoidance of future skills shortages in the sector; and

• the need to explore and publicise good practice in the area of training and skills transferability.

In order to address these issues, the social partners' declaration commits the parties to the following action:

• to explore good practice in lifelong learning and staff redeployment, largely within the context of a specific working group, which will be set up within the sectoral social dialogue committee (EU9902151F);

• to initiate a common study in order to identify and provide future skills needs in the sector;

• to continue work on equal opportunities in the sector; and

• to propose to the European Commission the setting up of a joint workshop to look at the social implications of restructuring in the central and eastern European electricity industries.

Further, the social partners have agreed that, within the context of a partnership approach, all the relevant actors should contribute to the process outlined above and that financial and technical means should be put at the social partners' disposal.

A programme of work based on this statement, including membership of the working group on lifelong learning, will be defined in the near future.