Agriculture and illegal employment in Europe
Recommendation 1781
(2007)
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 24 January 2007 (6th Sitting) (see Doc. 11114, report of the Committee on the Environment, Agriculture
and Local and Regional Affairs, rapporteur: Mr Dupraz). Text adopted by the Assembly on
24 January 2007 (6th Sitting).
- Thesaurus
2 The Assembly recalls the European Convention on the Social
Protection of Farmers (ETS No. 83) and especially Article 3 stipulating
that, “Each Contracting Party shall ensure to farmers, the members
of their families and, where appropriate, their paid employees,
social protection comparable to that enjoyed by other groups of
the population […]”. The Assembly draws attention to the principles
set out in the revised European Social Charter (ETS No. 163), which
provide that, “all workers have the right to just conditions of
work” and “have the right to dignity at work” (Part I, Articles
2 and 26), and to the Convention on Action against Trafficking in
Human Beings (CETS No. 197). It also recalls the International Labour
Organization Convention 184 and
Recommendation 192 concerning safety and health in agriculture, adopted
in June 2001, and the United Nations International Convention on
the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of their Families which came into force in March 2003, and regrets
that only three member states of the Council of Europe (Azerbaijan,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Turkey) have ratified this instrument.
3 For the last ten years or so, the lean production system has
affected fruit and vegetable supplies and international pressure
for liberalisation of the agricultural markets is constant. The
consequences are dramatic for producers, unable to contend with
the influx of low-priced products, and the general tendency is for
small farmers to be supplanted by large agri-food groups. The rush
to achieve the lowest prices directly affects employees in these
sectors who must adapt their work to the market trend at the risk
of losing their livelihood, and it is labour that has now become
the adjustable variable.
4 Agriculture is not the only economic sector in Europe to be
heavily dependent on the exploitation of undeclared labourers who
are often foreign and clandestine, but fruit and vegetable production
is the only intensive agricultural sector that, although mechanised,
needs to use extensive manpower. The use of undeclared labour is
now a characteristic of agriculture, most of all in seasonal activities.
This situation creates economic advantages and distortion of competition
benefiting the less law-abiding entrepreneurs and its concomitant
is the abuse or the total denial of agricultural workers’ social
rights.
5 The Assembly is aware that the problem affects the entire
continent and goes beyond the domestic powers of states. International
networks for the trafficking of illegal manpower are being developed
by taking advantage of the vulnerability of migrants seeking work,
who are prepared to go to any length to improve living conditions
for themselves and for their families in their countries of origin,
and by playing on the differences in the respective national legislation
and the absence of any European regulations on the matter.
6 The Assembly finds that illegal employment can unfortunately
take exploitative forms which it condemns as being contrary to modern
society, human rights and the values upheld by the Council of Europe.
7 The Assembly notes that those in illegal employment are often
also in an irregular situation and that they are doubly exposed
to exploitation as illegal workers and as irregular migrants.
8 The Assembly considers that all agricultural workers, whether
permanent or seasonal, are men and women entitled to respect and
human dignity. Consequently, the same rights as other workers should
be granted to them through the application of national and international
legislation in the area of labour law.
9 To end the disparity between regulations, conditions of employment
in agriculture should be made subject to a binding legal framework
suited to the different situations of workers, whether permanent
or seasonal, foreigners or nationals. This would also make it possible
to stimulate the often deficient national supply of manpower. This
legal framework should be accompanied by sanctions applicable to
offenders and by appropriate, effective means of supervision.
10 For this purpose, the Assembly recommends that the Committee
of Ministers invite member states to:
10.1 draw up and implement collective labour agreements for
agriculture, governing seasonal work in particular and taking into
account the specificity of the sector and the pace of work which
it demands, defining the health-care provision, wages, working time,
overtime and housing conditions, while ensuring that the systems
for renewing contracts are supervised by an independent body in
order to avoid putting any kind of pressure on employees;
10.2 provide for the progressive acquisition of rights by the
holders of renewed work permits, including the right to extended
residence, family reunion and a pension on retirement;
10.3 set up stringent, effective systems of supervision in
respect of these rules, carrying prompt and dissuasive sanctions
against breaches of labour law;
10.4 establish better transfrontier co-operation to combat
the manpower trafficking networks, particularly by developing the
national contact centres for the improvement of information on migration, which
might be extended to states not belonging to the European Union
so as to co-ordinate the instruments to combat illegal manpower
networks;
10.5 ensure that irregular migrants, including those working
in agriculture, enjoy at the very least the rights outlined in Assembly
Resolution 1509 (2006) on human rights of irregular migrants;
10.6 tackle the root causes of the use of irregular migrants
in the agricultural sector, including economic factors, lack of
supply of local labour, restrictions on recruiting people from abroad, complicated
administrative procedures and unscrupulous employers;
10.7 deal with the situation of irregular migrants, including
in agriculture, in a fair and humane fashion, examining options
for their regularisation or for their return to their countries
of origin;
10.8 conclude readmission agreements between host countries
and countries of origin for irregular migrants, backed by specific
education and training programmes and by economic co-operation and development
schemes in the countries of origin;
10.9 organise, in co-operation with the agricultural trade
organisations and the labour unions, large-scale information campaigns
on agricultural occupations and to promote training and recruitment
of local manpower while establishing proper working conditions in
a spirit of respect and recognition for the work performed;
10.10 invite national and regional ombudspersons to examine
the precarious situation of illegal workers employed in agriculture.
11 The Assembly also recommends that the Committee of Ministers
instruct the European Committee for Social Cohesion (CDCS) to:
11.1 consider drawing up an additional
protocol to the European Convention on the Social Protection of
Farmers, setting up a monitoring mechanism for this convention;
11.2 draw up an additional protocol to the above-mentioned
convention, dealing with the social protection of seasonal workers
in the agricultural sector.
12 Furthermore, the Assembly invites member states not yet having
done so to:
12.1 sign and/or ratify
the European Convention on the Social Protection of Farmers;
12.2 sign and/or ratify the International Labour Organization
Convention 184 concerning safety and health in agriculture and implement
the related
Recommendation
192;
12.3 sign and/or ratify the United Nations International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members
of their Families;
12.4 sign and/or ratify the revised European Social Charter;
12.5 sign and/or ratify the Convention on Action against Trafficking
in Human Beings.
13 The Assembly also invites the Council of Europe Commissioner
for Human Rights to examine exploitation of workers in agriculture
in the course of his work in individual countries.
14 Finally, the Assembly invites the national and European trade
unions to further and uphold the rights of seasonal workers, particularly
in the agricultural sector.
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