Industrial Relations in Europe 2012 - European Commission - Europa

Cockpit Association (ECA), and ETF express their wish that the principles of the above regulations,
based on place of work, be applied to mobile air transport workers. The social partners believe that
the "home base" of mobile air transport workers is the best determinant of the applicable social
security law. Many airlines provide their services from so-called home bases, the place where the
personnel normally starts or ends a duty period or a series of duty periods This is also the location
with which the worker has the greatest connection during their employment. The new social
security rules for aircrew, 103 which came into force on 28 June 2012 clarify that they are due to pay
social security contributions and are eligible to receive benefits in the country where they start and
end their shifts, in other words their home base, instead of that the country where their airline is
based.
There remain obstacles to the mobility of cultural workers and productions within and outside the
EU. In April 2011, the social partners in the live performance sector adopted a joint statement
calling upon culture ministers to support the establishment of Mobility information services for
artists and for culture professionals in the Member States. They believe that such a network of
information points across Europe would answer the need for basic information, as well as tailored
advice and guidance for culture professionals working or seeking to work in another Member State.
They called for their national members to be involved in the creation and management of such
structures.
Capacity-building
The social partners in several sectors took actions to strengthen social dialogue through capacitybuilding
measures. Most of the initiatives were targeted at the new Member States, where social
partners are usually weaker (see Chapter 2). For instance, in the construction sector, EFBWW ran a
project on Capacity Building for Setting up Paritarian Funds in Central and Eastern European
Countries. Other initiatives were aimed at reinforcing the existing European and the national
networks of the social dialogue, for example a project managed by EFFAT in the agriculture
sector.
In close cooperation with the sectoral European social partners, the International Training Centre of
the ILO organised in 2011 two parallel capacity-building projects in the commerce sector,
targeting respectively employers' organisations and trade unions in the new Member States and
some Candidate Countries. The projects aimed to reinforce the institutional capacity of national
organisations, in order to improve engagement in policy development and sectoral social dialogue,
both at national and EU level. As the projects ran in parallel, an integrated approach was ensured
and social partnership was fostered. A bipartite workshop brought all participants together at the
end of the period of separate training actions.
In December 2010, the social partners in the temporary agency work sector, Eurociett and UNI
Europa, organised a round table on temporary agency work social dialogue in Istanbul in
coordination with the Turkish social partners. As was the case with previous round tables in a
number of countries (such as Bulgaria in 2009, Hungary in 2007 and Poland in 2006), the aim was
103 Regulation (EU) 465/2012; OJ L 149, 8.6.2012, p. 4
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