First Promote International Workshop – Innovative Transnational Cooperation Actions: Assessing the Potential.

On June 4, the first international workshops foreseen in the Promote project, led by UGT_FICA, took place. This online workshop was organised by  NOTUS and was attended by all partners: AI CISL (Italy), CFE-CGC Agro (France), ICDI (Romania).

The workshop was attended by 63 participants from the different countries involved in the project. The participants came from trade union organisations, public administration (Labour Inspectorate), employers’ organisations and university institutions.

Pedro Hojas, who is the General Secretary of UGT FICA, welcomed the participants and highlighted the importance of cooperation to improve the conditions of posted workers. Ana María del Corral (UGT Migration Department) also took part in the event, highlighting the need for greater participation of the social partners and European regulations to improve the conditions of workers who move around Europe.

Enrico Somaglia (EFFAT) underlined the importance for workers in the agricultural sector at European level of the inclusion in the regulations of the new CAP, social conditionality, compliance with workers’ rights, a historical demand of the European trade unions affiliated to EFFAT. He also highlighted the need to making progress in the improvement of workers’ rights with legislative regulation at European level. 

Manuel Pedro Velázquez (ONLF) of the OAITSS, highlighted the importance of collaboration between the various bodies in the different countries as a tool to make interventions that improve and prevent fraud more effective.  The Ministry of Labour, together with the Labour Inspectorate, is creating a website that brings together all the necessary information for posted workers or seasonal workers who come to Spain and Spaniards who go abroad.

From the Unión de Pequeños Agricultores (UPA), Miguel Esponera pointed out the main challenges faced by business organisations and stressed the importance of the migration commissions as a body for the participation of all social agents.

Valentina Vasilynova, presented the experiences developed by the Bulgarian trade union FSNZ, with other European trade unions to tackle and denounce abuses and breaches of legislation, as did Horatiu Raicu from the National Trade Union Bloc of Romania, who pointed out the importance of collaboration between European trade unions to improve the conditions of agricultural workers displaced in Europe