FIEC Newsletter -19 Νοεμβρίου 2024

The Recovery Construction Forum 3.0, held in Warsaw on 13 November, brought together key stakeholders to discuss Ukraine’s reconstruction. FIEC actively participated in the conference through its President Piero Petrucco, Honourary President Kjetil Tonning and Director General Domenico Campogrande. The Forum was hosted by FIEC’s Ukrainian member, the Confederation of Builders of Ukraine (CBU) in cooperation with other parteners and with the support of FIEC.The event highlighted the collaboration between Ukraine and the European Union on rebuilding housing, energy, and infrastructure. Ukrainian officials outlined major recovery projects, including EU-funded projects and green energy initiatives. Panelists also emphasised transparency, anti-corruption measures, and workforce challenges.

The role of the EU and its Member States, such as Poland, in facilitating investment and business opportunities for international companies was also discussed. Ukrainian officials signalled Ukraine’s growing attractiveness as a post-war investment hub and encouraged the involvement of foreign companies in the reconstruction effort.

On 13 November, FIEC participated in the dissemination event of the POST-MEET project, organised by AEIP (European Association of Paritarian Institutions). The POST-MEET project aims at improving access to essential information on transnational posting in the construction sector for workers and companies across 8 EU Member States. The panel discussion gathered representatives from the trade unions (EFBWW – European Federation of Builders and Wood Workers), ELA (European Labour Authority), the paritarian institutions and SOKA-BAU.Christine Le Forestier, Director for Social Affairs, insisted on the importance for construction companies of having easily accessible, reliable and up-to-date information on the applicable legislation. A shared concern was raised: The legal framework around the posting of workers within the EU is complex. Therefore, companies need as much assistance as possible. This also speaks in favour of a “Helpdesk” on posting, which could be provided by ELA. A feasibility study is ongoing.

On 14 November, FIEC participated in the Annual Conference of the AEIP (European Association of Paritarian Institutions). In a panel discussion dedicated to strengthening the Social Dialogue, Christine Le Forestier, Director for Social Affairs, highlighted the well-functioning of the sectoral Social Dialogue at EU level.At a time where the European Commission is about to work on a new Pact for the European Social Dialogue, she recalled the many achievements reached by EFBWW (European Federation of Builders and Wood Workers) and FIEC, the EU sectoral social partners for construction, be it in the framework of EU-funded projects, or at policy level.

Therefore, Le Forestier insisted that the European Commission takes the sectoral social dialogue into account in its future proposals. As a wish list, to take-away by the representative of the European Commission, she eventually mentioned that construction companies’ need more simplification and the adequate conditions for fair competition.

The European Social Dialogue partners of construction industry FIEC and EFBWW (European Federation of Building and Wood Workers) have organised the third meeting of the EU-funded project “Decentralised Thematic Social Dialogue for the Construction Industry” (DESOCO 2), which addressed one of the sector’s most critical challenges: labour and skills shortages. The event brought together industry stakeholders for an insightful and results-oriented discussion.During the event, participants were presented with the initial results of a study on labour shortages in the construction industry. The findings provided a comprehensive overview of the current state of workforce availability and highlighted the urgency of addressing this issue.

In addition, members of FIEC and EFBWW shared successful national strategies and initiatives to address labour shortages at national level. These examples provided valuable lessons and demonstrated the importance of collaboration and exchange between different stakeholders in the industry.

On 13 November, the European Commission adopted a legislative proposal to establish a Single Digital Declaration portal for the posting of workers. According to the European Commission, this proposal aims at: reducing the administrative burden of companies for posting workers, enhancing the cooperation among Member States, supporting the protection of workers and improving the collection of data related to the posting of workers in the EU.This proposal for a Regulation entails 2 components: a standard form, which will consist of information related to the service provider, the posted worker, the posting assignment, the contact person to liaise with the competent authorities and the service recipient (NB: the exact list of information will be established by implementing acts); and a multilingual public electronic interface, connected to the Internal Market Information System (IMI), to implement this standard form.

Member States will be able to make use of this scheme on a voluntary basis. According to the European Commission, already 9 Member States announced that they would like to align to this new scheme.