A4-0292/97

Resolution on the Commission report on PEPPER II: promotion of participation by employed persons in profits and enterprise results (including equity participation) in Member States, 1996 (COM(96)0697 - C4-0019/97)

The European Parliament,

- having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community and in particular Article 235 thereof,

- having regard to its opinion of 9 April 1992 on the Commission proposal for a Council recommendation concerning the promotion of employee participation in profits and enterprise results (including equity participation) ((OJ C 125, 18.5.1992, p. 236.)),

- having regard to Council Recommendation 92/443/EEC of 27 July 1992 concerning the promotion of participation by employed persons in profits and enterprise results (including equity participation) ((OJ L 245, 26.8.1992, p. 53.)),

- having regard to the Commission report on PEPPER - the promotion of participation by employed persons in profits and enterprise results ((Published in supplement 3/91 to 'Social Europe¨.)),

- having regard to the report from the Commission on PEPPER II: promotion of participation by employed persons in profits and enterprise results (including equity participation) in Member States, 1996 (COM(96)0697 - C4- 0019/97),

- having regard to the Commission Green Paper on partnership for a new organization of work (COM(97)0128 - C4-0187/97),

- having regard to the report by the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the opinion of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs and Industrial Policy (A4-0292/97),

A. whereas growth in participation by employees in profits and enterprise results goes hand-in-hand with increased productivity; whereas such growth strengthens workers' commitment to their enterprise, while at the same time encouraging them to acquire new qualifications,

B. whereas financial participation helps ensure that employees are better informed and consulted within the enterprise and increases their participation in decision-making,

C. whereas, despite Council Recommendation 92/443/EEC, Member States have not fundamentally changed their policies in relation to financial participation; whereas there are still wide divergences in the approaches of Member States to the role of the state in the development of PEPPER schemes; whereas exchanges of information in particular have been practised rarely if at all,

D. whereas the development of participation schemes continues to be strongly influenced by government policy, in particular that on tax incentives; whereas Community institutions nonetheless have an important part to play, as do both sides of industry at national and European level,

E. whereas in some Member States the two sides of industry appear to be insufficiently aware of the issue of financial participation,

1. Welcomes the fact that the debate on financial participation by workers in Europe has been reopened with this Commission report which seeks to assess the manner in which Member States have applied the Council Recommendation on the promotion of participation by employed persons four years after its adoption;

2. Is nevertheless dismayed to discover that Member States have acted hardly if at all on the Recommendation's request to them to acknowledge the potential advantages of the use on a much greater scale of a wide variety of schemes for participation by waged employees in profits and enterprise results (such as profit-sharing, equity participation or mixed schemes) and to take into account in that connection the responsibility of both sides of industry in accordance with national legislation and/or practice;

3. Notes that Member States have scarcely, if at all, engaged in information exchanges, either as regards the introduction of best practice or the establishment of an adequate legal and fiscal framework;

4. Refers to the valuable experience of profit and equity participation schemes gained in France and the United Kingdom;

5. Recalls the idea expressed in the White Paper on growth, competitiveness and employment of a productivity-oriented wages policy with a view to generating profits from which investment should be financed;

6. Calls for a favourable response to the call it has made in a number of resolutions, such as those of 10 March 1994 on employment in Europe ((OJ C 91, 28.3.1994, p. 224.)) and 14 July 1995 on the annual report from the Commission 'Emloyment in Europe - 1994" ((OJ C 249, 25.9.1995, p. 208.)) that employees should be able to participate in the profits and investments that would not have been possible if they had not exercised restraint in their wage demands;

7. Refers to appeals to this effect by the governments of Germany, Spain and Italy to the social partners;

8. Calls on the Commission:

- to conduct a study into the impact of financial participation schemes in Member States on employment, productivity and wage flexibility, and to assess the conditions for introducing such schemes in enterprises, in particular small and medium-sized enterprises;

- to implement an adequately financed programme to promote the exchange of information and best practice, together with training for both sides of industry in financial participation schemes;

- to set up a working party consisting of representatives of both sides of industry, Members of the European Parliament and Commission experts to promote the introduction of PEPPER schemes in equivalent conditions throughout the Community, in particular in transnational enterprises; the working party should consider all aspects of financial participation which are of relevance to the EU, particularly those outlined in its opinion of 9 April 1992 referred to above;

- to study the need for a Community initiative concerning aspects of policy on capital, for example a recommendation on the coordination or harmonization of support for enterprises with a European dimension or to ensure the promotion of capital-forming payments to or by migrant workers, including where the latter thereby acquire participating interests in the production sector in their home country;

- to develop pilot projects, along the lines it has itself suggested, for the participation of undertakings e.g. in connection with the privatisation of state enterprises, including projects in the countries of central and eastern Europe;

9. Recommends that Member States:

- develop framework legislation in the Member States (promotion through fiscal law and/or bonuses);

- instruct national bodies to draw up schemes for promoting and encouraging financial participation schemes;

- include SMEs in any promotion through favourable treatment not only of the acquisition of bonded securities but also of forms of participation typical of these enterprises;

- extend eligibility for financial participation schemes to all categories of employees, in particular part-time employees or those on fixed contracts;

- set up financial participation schemes in conjunction with the privatization of public-sector organizations;

- ensure, in accordance with national practices, that financial participation systems are planned, introduced and supervised in cooperation between enterprises and employee groups;

- provide appropriate information so as to forestall unreasonable risks associated with the issue of shares to employees when an enterprise faces economic and financial problems; in addition, it should be carefully investigated how employees are safeguarded against excessive losses in value (for example by means of insolvency insurance, bank guarantees etc.) during the period in which they cannot freely dispose of their shares in the enterprise (blocking period);

- promote the idea of supplementary old-age protection by means of the accumulation of capital by employees;

- develop alternative forms of investment where it is impossible for employees to participate in equity, e.g. in the public service, or where such participation is rejected; such alternatives should provide SMEs with sufficient accumulated capital with which to create jobs;

10. Calls on both sides of industry at national and European level:

- to organize information campaigns that will benefit the parties concerned and raise public awareness of the options;

- to encourage PEPPER options as a feature of collective bargaining and to draw attention to the favourable impact these options can be expected to have on productivity, income enhancement, resources, employment and worker participation;

11. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Economic and Social Committee and the European social partners.