WRITTEN QUESTION E-2452/02

by Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Commission

(29 August 2002)

Subject: Employment and social security rights for persons employed as school caretakers

By decision 34100 of 24 November 1999 of the Greek Minister of Labour a programme providing work experience for 3 300 unemployed persons as school caretakers was adopted. The programme was originally scheduled to run for 24 months: eleven months were to be devoted to acquiring work experience and the remaining thirteen months would consist of work. The unemployed persons were recruited for this purpose in the first quarter of 2001. After a seminar lasting a few days, the school caretakers took up regular work guarding school buildings every day of the month around the clock. Their work was judged to be exceptionally positive. However, for the first eleven months of work experience, the social security rights of these employees were extremely limited and included only medical care without any provision for pension rights, leave, holidays, night work, etc. After the end of the first eleven-month period of work experience, their period of employment was extended by ministerial decision, but without them being granted the social security and labour rights to which they are entitled by law, although they have completed the period of work experience and are regularly employed. What measures does the Commission intend to take to put an end to the unacceptable restrictions on their employment rights, particularly since it is financing the programmes in question?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(10 October 2002)

As the matter raised concerns a European Social Fund programme, the Commission will contact the Greek authorities in order to obtain the necessary information and clarification and inform the Honourable Member of the outcome of this inquiry.

The Commission can, however, draw the Honourable Member's attention to the following: Council Directive 1999/70/EC of 28 June 1999 concerning the famework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by ETUC, UNICE and CEEP(1) lays down the principle of non-discrimination of fixed-term workers compared to workers with a contract of indefinite duration. The Member States may, however, provide that the Directive should not be applied to initial vocational training relationships and apprenticeship schemes or employment contracts and relationships which have been concluded within the framework of a specific public or publicly-supported training, integration and vocational retraining programme.

As far as the protection of health and safety is concerned, the provisions of the Working Time Directive (Council Directive 93/104/EC of 23 November 1993 concerning certain aspects of the organization of working time(2)), in principle, apply. Indeed, the personal scope of this Directive is rather large, as it applies to every worker. The definition of worker is, according to Article 3 of Council Directive 89/391/EEC of 12 June 1989 on the introduction of measures to encourage improvements in the safety and health of workers at work(3), any person employed by an employer, including trainees and apprentices but excluding domestic servants.

Workers covered by the Directive are, without prejudice of the derogations provided for by Article 17, entitled to:

- a minimum daily rest period of 11 consecutive hours per 24-hour period (Article 3);

- a rest break where the working day is longer than six hours (Article 4);

- an uninterrupted rest period of 24 hours for each seven-day period (Article 5);

- an average working time for each seven-day period, including overtime, not exceeding 48 hours (Article 6);

- paid annual leave of at least four weeks (Article 7);

- a limit on the length of night work to an average of eight hours in any 24-hour period (Article 8).

Both Directives have been transposed into Greek law and it is up to the national authorities to assure they are correctly applied.

Responsibility for social security entitlements remains with the Member States. Under European law it is possible to have different social security arrangements for different categories of workers.

(1) OJ L 175, 10.7.1999.

(2) OJ L 307, 13.12.1993.

(3) OJ L 183, 29.6.1989.