7. 8. 89 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 201/17 
Opinion on the social developments in the Community in 1988 
(89/C 201/05) 
On 22 June 1989 the Economic and Social Committee, acting under the fourth paragraph of 
Article 20 of its Rules of Procedure, decided to draw up an Opinion on the social developments 
in the Community in 1988. 
The Section for Social, Family, Educational and Cultural Affairs, which was responsible for 
preparing the Committee's work on the subject, adopted its Opinion on 11 May 1989 in the 
light of the report by Mr Schade-Poulsen. 
At its 267th plenary session (meeting of 22 June 1989), the Economic and Social Committee 
adopted the following Opinion by a majority, with no votes against and 3 abstentions. 
Foreword 
The Committee has, in its previous addresses to the 
Commission, stressed its conviction that economic and 
social policies within the Community should comp­
lement each other. 
1988 was the year in which the 'social dimension' of 
the Single Market reached the political agenda. As 
stressed by the Hannover and Rhodes summits, the 
concept of a 'social Europe' was registered across the 
political spectrum, and it will no doubt be a key feature 
in the run-up to 1992 and after. 
1. Social trends 
1.1. In 1988, the Community economy grew by about 
3,7%, the best performance since 1978/1979. Average 
inflation remained at around 3,5 % (with considerably 
higher as well as lower levels recorded in some Member 
States), profitability showed a marked up-turn of 3,4%, 
overall wage levels remained relatively stable, labour 
productivity rose by 2,4% and real unit labour costs 
continued to decline by nearly 1 %. 
1.2. Employment increased by 1,2% compared to 
1987, 1,6 million new jobs being created, the best result 
since 1975. The actual volume of employment increased 
less, 75% of new jobs taking the form of part-time 
employment. 
1.3. Unemployment decreased by only 0,3% and 
clearly remains a major problem of the Community, 
affecting 16 million people or 11,5% of the labour 
force. Long-term unemployment has continued to grow, 
now exceeding 50% of total unemployment. The rate 
of youth unemployment in the Community, though 
continuing to fall, is still over 20%. 
1.4. It can be argued that such high levels of unem­
ployment are also a reflection of a considerable increase in the active work-force, and especially the growing 
number of women seeking paid employment. It should 
be noted nonetheless that the female participation rate 
in the Community in 1988 was 64,5%, significantly 
lower than in some industrialized countries (notably 
82,5% in Sweden). Moreover, those EC Member States 
where unemployment is particularly high, tend to have 
much lower than average female participation rates. 
1.5. Sectoral changes in employment perhaps pro­
vide a clearer picture of the employment-creation chal­
lenge facing the Community. For example, agriculture 
is now able to provide only 8 % of total employment 
in the EC. Industry has continued to shed employment, 
and investment arising from renewed profitability tends 
to be in equipment, in rationalization and in fixed 
capital. 
In the words of the Commission 'the current expansion 
of net employment is (...) provided virtually by the 
service sector alone' (59,4%). The service sector alone, 
however, has not been capable of creating, let alone 
sustaining, sufficient new jobs as to have a significant 
impact on mass unemployment. 
1.6. It is also becoming clearer, even in some of these 
Member States where higher levels of growth have been 
achieved, that new job vacancies on the labour market 
cannot always be filled. Such mis-matching, it must be 
stressed, is not limited to highly technical professions. 
The construction industry in some countries, for exam­
ple, cannot locate sufficient numbers of trained wor­
kers. 
1.7. The Committee notes that increased precarious-
ness of employment is affecting particular sections of 
society (*). Vulnerable groups, notably among women, 
the young, migrant workers, ethnic minorities and 
people with disabilities, are often offered unskilled, low 
paid jobs, with little training, and still less prospects 
(') See 'The changing face of work', European Foundation for 
the improvement of living and working conditions, Dublin, 
1988, p. 108. 
No C 201/18 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 8. 89 
of planning a career: such difficulties are sometimes 
exacerbated by discriminatory practices. The Commit­
tee is also particularly concerned that in certain regions, 
illegal child labour has not been stamped out. The black 
economy continues to function unabated. 
1.7.1. The Committee notes in this connection that 
the Commission has undertaken to provide in-depth 
studies on the labour market in Europe and to produce 
an annual report on the employment situation and 
perspectives in the Community. This report ought to 
give a clear and comparable breakdown of employment 
and unemployment trends, including a less blurred view 
of the 'grey' area in between, of the growing use of 
casual and undeclared labour and the spread of ill-
protected forms of work. It should also examine the 
impact which the demographic situation will have in 
the Member States, given that fewer youths will be 
entering the labour market in the near future, and many 
older workers will be leaving it. The report should 
not only be examined by the Standing Committee on 
employment, but should also be officially referred to 
the Economic and Social Committee. 
1.8. Geographical disparities, both in terms of unem­
ployment and income, did not substantially narrow in 
1988. In Spain and Ireland, for example, unemployment 
stands at 20 % of the active population compared to the 
aforementioned Community average of 11,5%, whilst 
similar and sometimes even higher regional disparities 
continue to exist. In terms of income, the four poorest 
countries in the Community, while starting to catch up, 
still represent only 65% of average per capita gross 
domestic product (GDP) of the four richest countries. 
1.9. Poverty throughout the Community as a whole, 
particularly in its 'new forms', touching much broader 
strata of the population, has not been arrested. The 
basic trend over the last ten years, as recently evidenced 
by the Commission (*) and commented on by the Com­
mittee (2), is still an increase in the numbers of persons 
dependent on social assistance and sometimes still 
denied it. Indeed, in the face of the overall increase in 
demand for social protection, certain forms of social 
assistance have been eroded. At the same time, whilst 
social spending as a whole has increased, its share of 
GDP is set to continue diminishing in most Member 
States (3). 
(') See Doc. of 22 December 1988: proposal for a Council 
Decision establishing a medium-term Community action pro­
gramme to foster the economic and social integration of the 
least privileged groups. 
(2) See ESC information report on poverty of 9 March 1989. 
(3) See Doc. of 7 December 1988: 'Commission report, medium-
term projection of social protection expenditure and its finan­
cing—1990 projections—Summary report', pp. 6/7. 1.10. At the same time, growing disrespect for social 
and civic norms and the spread of youth delinquency 
is a disturbing trend, even among some quite affluent 
groups. 
2. EC social policy in 1988 
2.1. Even though the 'social dimension' as a concept 
has been given more attention in 1988, there still seems 
to be differences of opinion as to what the concept 
implies. In this context it should be recalled that the 
Committee was asked by the Commission to draw up 
an Opinion on the possible substance of a Community 
charter of basic social rights. The resultant Committee 
Opinion on 'Basic Community social rights' (4) rejected 
the concept of a European Social Charter and urged 
that the instruments provided for in the Treaty be 
deployed to enshrine basic social rights in national 
legislation. Together with earlier ESC Opinions (5) this 
ought to help promote the concept in question, and 
the Committee looks forward to a response from the 
Commission. 
2.2. The major EC social policy initiatives in 1988 
were an 'Interdepartmental interim report' (6) and a 
'Working Paper'(7). (This latter document indicated 
some 80 Commission proposals and measures foreseen 
'concerning the social dimension' of the Internal Mar­
ket, of which only a handful have been approved by 
Council, over 20 are still with Council, and 40 are 
still in preparation. 1992 approaches.) In addition, the 
Commission launched a so-called 'Action programme 
of support for the long-term unemployed'. The 'Val 
Duchesse' social dialogue continued its course. The 
policy theme of 'worker participation' has been re­
launched by the Commission and endorsed by the Com­
mittee in connection with the 'European company stat­
ute', at present in the preliminary form of a Commission 
'Memorandum' (8). 
2.3. One area where the Commission took concrete 
action was in proposing various Directives on minimum 
health and safety provisions at the workplace. The 
Committee soundly endorsed these proposals. The 
Committee likewise approved the Commission pro­
posal for modifying the 'burden of proof in equal 
opportunity cases. 
(4) ESC Opinion on 'Basic Community social rights' (OJ No 
C 126,23. 5. 1989, p. 4). 
(•<i) ESC Opinion and information on social aspects of the Internal 
Market (OJ No C 356, 31. 12. 1987). 
(6) 'Social Europe: the social dimension of the Internal Market, 
interim report of the interdepartmental working party' (ISBN 
92-825-8256-6). 
(7) 'Social dimension of the Internal Market: Commission work­
ing paper, 14 September 1988. 
(H) ESC Opinion (JO No C 23, 30. 1. 1985). 
7. 8. 89 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 201/19 
2.4. Finally, progress was also achieved in adminis­
tering the reform and eventual doubling of the 'Struc­
tural Funds', which should help to promote economic 
and social cohesion among the regions of the European 
Community. 
3. 1992 and the European 'social challenge' 
3.01. 1988 was the year in which the European 
Council finally stressed 'the importance of the social 
aspects of progress towards the 1992 objectives', noting 
that 'by removing the obstacles to growth, the large 
Single Market offers the best prospect for promoting 
employment and increasing the general prosperity of 
the Community to the advantage of all its citizens' (1). 
3.02. The completion of the European Internal Mar­
ket, if properly achieved, should probably help to regen­
erate industry and services, removing barriers affecting 
trade and production, offering economies of scale, 
intensifying competition and promoting more 
efficiency, technical innovation and dynamic restructur­
ing. Estimated savings of some 200 000 million ECU for 
firms, higher profitability and wider consumer choice 
should all result (2). 
3.03. At the same time, some 40 million persons in 
the Member States living on less than half the average 
per capita income, including some of the 16 million 
unemployed European citizens and their families, might 
well ask what 1992 really has in store for them: whether 
this 'best prospect' for employment and prosperity will 
simply 'pass them by', whether new jobs will be actively 
promoted, prepared for and nurtured or just 'occur' 
arbitrarily, whether the economic and commercial ben­
efit of the Internal Market will have a purposeful or 
only a casual and uneven impact on social conditions 
in Europe, whether the increased structural funds avail­
able will be put to good effect. 
3.1. The major overall theme, as we look towards 
1992, is that of employment, adaptability, training and 
mobility. 
3.1.1. In comparison with contemporary and dispar­
ate national attemps to reduce mass unemployment, 
'1992' and accompanying EC objectives would appear 
to offer some hope. The extra non-inflationary econ­
omic growth of 5% to 7% expected from the com­
pletion of the Internal Market is indeed projected in 
the medium term to increase employment in the EC by 
(!) European Council in Hannover, 27/28 June 1988, 'Conclusion 
of the presidency'. 
(2) See 'The European challenge—1992; the benefits of a Single 
Market' (Cecchini report). 1,5% to 3,9%, a net gain of 1,8 million to 5 million 
jobs(3). (A significant number of jobs, however, might 
be threatened in the short term.) 
3.1.2. The immediate 'social challenge' facing the 
Community is to ensure that this expected growth is 
both supported by and geared towards proper employ­
ment promotion, that priority be given to improving 
the level and quality of employment, that a net increase 
in the volume of work and real jobs is achieved and 
sustained, rather than a mere shake-out, displacement 
or substitution of existing employment. 
3.1.3. The problem is illustrated by the fact that 
the efforts and sacrifices behind the current economic 
recovery, resulting in the best performance in 10 years, 
have not been matched by any fundamental readjust­
ment of unemployment or volume of employment. 
More people than ever before are now in work in 
Europe, but the 3,5 % growth registered in 1988 did not 
substantially reduce the number of European citizens 
without any job at all. The capacity of new, expanding 
commercial sectors, such as services, to absorb full-
time surplus manpower appears to be limited, especially 
as new information technology becomes self-sustaining. 
3.1.4. This continuing 'employment deficit' is why 
the European 'social challenge' towards and beyond 
1992 involves more than gearing growth to employment 
and employment towards further growth. The Euro­
pean 'social challenge' should be about a determined 
policy-mix, with a view to promoting employment, 
responsive to and integrated with, but not merely a 
variable of fluctuating market demands. In other words: 
— the flexible advantages and economic performance 
of the market need to be sustained by adaptable 
working methods and proper training conducive to 
maximizing employment potential, 
— and so, too, should market prospects be comp­
lemented by concerted employment programmes 
focused on societal needs such as housing, social 
and civic services, improving the quality of life, 
protecting and upgrading the environment and 
natural resources, preserving and renewing our cul­
tural heritage, etc.—needs vital to the social fabric 
(3) Ibid. 
No C 201/20 Official Journal of the European Communities 7. 8. 89 
of European democracy, upon which the free mar­
ket depends, and which at the same time foreign 
producers or competitors could never satisfy. 
3.1.5. In the first instance, sustainable economic 
growth conducive to a higher employment content in 
industrial investment, would require consistent progress 
in manpower/supply-side conditions, notably in terms 
of realistic wages, lower unit labour costs and an adap­
table and motivated workforce facilitating higher capi­
tal productivity and plant utilization, and flexible pro­
duction organization. 
3.1.5.1. In the same instance, such wage moderation 
and motivated adaptability cannot be imposed on the 
workforce. Nor can they be sustained in a 'free for all' 
climate of distrust, insecurity and fear for the future. 
Fixed upon a concept of the workforce as being just 
another economic commodity, such notions are neither 
conducive to good production organization nor to the 
social cohesion and stability which business requires. 
They demonstrate insufficient sensitivity towards the 
longer-term benefits to be derived from the loyalty, 
quality, reliability and unchallenged motivated adapta­
bility of a human workforce which is retained through 
and benefits from permanent training, retraining and 
service. 
3.1.5.2. A more socially responsible and commer­
cially viable method, seeking to achieve a balance 
between the aspirations of employees and economic 
imperatives is that of 'functional adaptability'—devel­
oping, through good labour relations and collective 
agreements, the ability of workers to change jobs within 
a given or rapidly changing organizational structure, 
enhancing worker adaptability to 'qualitative changes 
in demand... induced by the market, by technology or 
by strategy options taken by the firm'^). This would 
require both forward-thinking management and a 
workforce prepared to make the training effort necess­
ary to change skills or to become multi-skilled. 
3.1.5.3. Intrinsically linked to this latter approach of 
'functional adaptability', and vital to the objective of 
increasing the employment content of industrial invest­
ment, is the need to maximize the operating hours of 
capital equipment and thereby allow the employment 
of more labour per unit of capital (2). The complex and 
potentially divisive question of organization of working 
time arises. It can only be solved by a spirit of give and 
take and with goodwill on both sides. Experience has 
shown that under certain circumstances a possible for-
(x) Ibid. 
(2) Annual economic report 1988/1989. Preparing for 1992 
(COM(88) 591 final, volume I), pp. 53/54. mula is to match the cost reductions resulting from 
longer operating hours of equipment with reductions 
of individual working time and the creation of more 
jobs. 
In this spirit of two-way flexibility, reorganization of 
working time might also positively be fashioned to 
facilitate part-time work for those who so wish and to 
develop better and more sophisticated social provisions 
befiting modern society. 
3.1.5.4. In all this, a positive and constructive atti­
tude is necessary, based on a democratic (and cost-
effective) concept of social partnership, of responsible 
cooperation, information and consultation, of planning 
for the future rather than defending the past, of progress 
by agreement and consensus rather than by dictate. 
Collective negotiations between the social partners at 
all agreed levels would appear to be the most appropri­
ate channel to pursue, complemented by national and 
European legal frameworks guaranteeing basic social 
and occupational rights (3). 
3.1.5.5. Connected to this is the need to ensure that 
existing Community-wide rights conducive to higher 
employment within the framework of 1992—especially 
the free movement of labour—are properly activated. 
In the 'White Paper' on the completion of the Internal 
Market, the Commission hoped to bring forward the 
approximation of apprentice training schemes (includ­
ing practical training in enterprises) to be followed at 
a second stage by the introduction of an EC vocational 
training card. Some progress has since been made in 
this direction, for example the Council Decision of 1 
December 1987 ensuring that all young people who so 
wish have access to two or more years vocational 
training following compulsory education (4). In the 
meantime, the Commission has undertaken technical 
work necessary to the establishment of comparability 
of qualifications, aided by the European Vocational 
Training Centre (Cedefop) in preparing common 'occu­
pational descriptions' in the EC to serve as a 'reference 
framework' for mutual recognition and new training 
courses. We would nonetheless still appear to be a long 
way from adopting an EC vocational training card. At 
the same time, rigorous efforts are needed to adapt and 
upgrade educational preparation for working life, to 
provide more language learning facilities, notably for 
children of migrant workers and from ethnic minorities, 
and to ensure equality of opportunity in the job market. 
3.1.6. As indicated earlier, the EC 'employment defi­
cit' also needs to be tackled through a Community-
(3) See ESC Opinion on 'Basic Community social rights', op. cit., 
pp. 5-7. 
(4) OJ No L 340, 10. 12. 1987. 
7. 8. 89 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 201/21 
wide jobs programme focused on societal needs and 
maximizing the innovative employment potential of 
small enterprises, cooperatives, advice services, self-
help groups and other socially-oriented organizations, 
crafts and caring professions which are developing both 
in inner cities and in rural areas. Concerted, employ­
ment-intensive investment, particularly in areas ben­
eficial to social cohesion and wellbeing—housing, ser­
vices, public works, infrastructure, environment, 
etc.—is more cost-effective than supporting mass unem­
ployment. The key question is whether there is suf­
ficient political will in the Member States to pursue 
Done at Brussels, 22 June 1989. such a qualitative EC-wide employment investment 
programme as an integral facet of 1992. 
3.2. The European 'social challenge' indeed goes 
beyond the question of employment, though this is 
clearly a central feature, conditioning our daily lives 
and affecting our families and their future, and has 
therefore been accorded pride of place in this Opinion. 
The European 'social challenge', in the final event, is 
about what sort of trans-national ethical and demo­
cratic model we envisage, what sort of social-consumer 
synthesis we seek, what sort of 'People's Europe' we 
want to construct. The message from the Economic 
and Social Committee is 'progress by consensus'. 
The Chairman 
of the Economic and Social Committee 
Alberto MASPRONE