EU globalisation fund must be more responsive to needs of redundant workers

Posted by Bronwen Maher on September 07, 2010 at 02:40 PM

Speaking in Strasbourg today Nessa Childers said: “The European Globalisation Fund (EGF) should be better co-ordinated and much more responsive in meeting the needs of workers who have lost their jobs as a result of large scale redundancies.
 
“The Report on the financing and functioning of the EGF voted on in the European Parliament today is timely and necessary. The Report seeks to have the Fund placed on a permanent footing in the future. This is to be welcomed, but lessons must also be learned as to how the mobilisation of the Fund can better meet the needs of redundant workers.
 
“The experiences of workers in SR Technics, Dell and Waterford Crystal and those of my colleague MEPs Alan Kelly and Proinsias de Rossa and myself, in terms of assisting in these cases, emphasises how the potential of this Fund to give redundant workers a fresh start and new opportunities to re-engage with the labour market, has been frustrated and obstructed by factors such as poor government planning, a lack of co-ordination and poor consultation with workers and their representatives at application stage.
 
“The Report presented to the European Parliament seeks to put the Fund on a permanent footing and I would urge the Commission, working with MEPs, to improve and streamline the way in which the Fund is mobilised.
 
“In future, application processes should be speeded up and more pro-active engagement with those set to lose their jobs should be carried out before any application is made.
 
“We should also ensure lessons are learned about how to best implement the Fund in the future following the excessive delays experienced by SR Technics workers in terms of their application and the frustrations felt by the staff at Waterford Crystal at the restrictive nature of the Fund.
 
“The application for SR Technics is still with the European Commission and a decision is expected to be made shortly.”

Permanent link | Comments (0) |