Committee Reports::Report No. 63 - Exchange of Young Workers::19 December, 1979::Report


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Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1979 > Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities > Report No. 63 - Exchange of Young Workers

REPORT

Introduction

1. Council Decision (79/642/EEC) of 16th July, 1979 established a second joint programme to encourage the exchange of young workers within the Community. This Decision was based on a proposal (5554/79) which was made by the Commission on 14th March, 1979 having regard to Article 50 of the EEC Treaty which provides that “Member States shall, within the framework of a joint programme encourage the exchange of young workers.”

2. The first EEC programme for the exchange of young workers which ended in 1977 was adopted on 8th May, 1964 by the representatives of Member States’ Governments meeting within the Council after consultation with the Commission. The Joint Committee is advised that this programme met with only partial success. Limited numbers participated and the objectives which the Commission had envisaged for encouraging cross cultural education and training were achieved to a limited extent only.

3. The Joint Committee considers it advisable to draw the attention of the Houses of the Oireachtas to the second programme so as to enable Members to assist in ensuring that young workers in this country will participate to the maximum practicable extent.

4. The programme has been examined in detail for the Joint Committee by its Sub-Committee on Social, Environmental and Miscellaneous Matters under the Chairmanship of Senator Mary Robinson. The Joint Committee is indebted to Senator Robinson and her Sub-Committee for their work. The Sub-Committee consulted the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, the Federated Union of Employers, the Confederation of Irish Industry and the American Field Service (AFS), Ireland which is affiliated to the European Federation for Intercultural Learning. It also discussed the programme with Dr. Alan Harrison, AFS, Ireland, Mr. Peter Mooney, Dublin Youth Services Council and Mr. Michael Wall, Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union and with a representative of the Department of Labour.

Objectives of Programme

5. The Commission sees the programme as having three separate, but complementary objectives, namely:—

(a) Supplementing vocational training for young people, improving their employment prospects and thus encouraging the free movement of workers,

(b) Helping young workers to acquire a broader understanding of living and working conditions in other countries, and

Outline of Programme

6. The programme is concerned with organising training periods for young workers in a Member State other than the Member State in which they reside. These training periods may be of long or short duration and will be implemented by groups organised at European level and chosen by the Commission. A new feature of the second programme is that the relations between these groups and the Commission will be governed by formal agreements defining the conditions for implementing exchanges, the obligations of the European organisation involved and the financial obligations of the respective parties.

7. To be eligible for participation in the programme a young worker must (a) be between 18 and 28 years of age, (b) have received basic vocational training or have practical working experience and (c) have commenced working before age 20. The first programme covered only a narrow range of occupations (farming, fishing, banking) but there will be no such limitation in the second programme.

8. Training periods under the second programme will be either of (i) long or (ii) short duration. The former will last between 4 and 16 months with an employer in the host country and involve training of a predominantly vocational character. The latter will last between 3 weeks and 3 months and be designed to enable the participants to establish contact with the working and living environment of the host country. Compared with the first programme the shorter period is an innovation. Another new feature is that the period of orientation/language training for those on the longer course of training is to be extended.

9. Community aid for the participants in the programme would be available as follows:—

—up to 75 per cent of travelling cost,

—a flat rate weekly contribution per trainee, amounting at present to 300 EUA per month in respect of participants on long-term exchanges and 175 EUA per week in respect of short-term exchange participants will be payable during the duration of the exchange.

—plus 100 EUA per week supplementary aid for language training for trainees embarking on long-term exchanges.

10. Each Member State will designate the competent authority which the promoting bodies should contact to examine exchange projects and to obtain help in organising and implementing the training periods. Otherwise Member States will be involved only in a consultative capacity.

11. The allocation proposed for the programme from the Community budget is 650,000 EUA in 1979, 1.5 million EUA for 1980 and 2 million EUA for each of the years 1981 to 1984, inclusive. The allocations for 1980 to 1984 are provisional figures only which have yet to be approved by the Council.

Views of the Joint Committee

12. The Joint Committee is informed that a study visit exchange is taking place this month under the programme under which five young Irish workers are spending nineteen days in Belgium while five Belgians are on a visit to this country. The arrangements as far as Ireland is concerned were organised by the AFS. The Committee understands that this exchange had to be organised at very short notice and not without difficulty so that there would be some Irish participation in the scheme in 1979. In the Committee’s view the successful organisation of this visit reflects great credit on those responsible.

13. As the Joint Committee sees it the programme is a modest one: the projected number of participants for the whole Community in 1980 is only 1,500 and the target figure for 1980 to 1984, inclusive, is only 1,600 per annum. There is no provision for participation on the basis of national quota. In the circumstances the Committee believes that a concerted effort will be needed to ensure a fair allocation for Ireland of the places available. The Committee understands that the National Manpower Service is being designated the competent authority in Ireland and it trusts that the Service will at an early stage bring the programme to the attention of interested bodies and will assist in any way it can to ensure the co-operation of employers. The Committee would also like the young workers who will participate being drawn from as many different parts of the country as possible.

14. The Committee notes that there is no specific provision in the programme for training courses to be carried out in the different countries on a reciprocal basis. It believes therefore that it will be necessary carefully to monitor the implementation of the programme so as to ensure that it genuinely involves the exchange of young workers. It also notes with approval that unemployed young persons are not to be excluded from the programme. It hopes that appropriate advantage will be taken of this fact when seeking places for young workers in this country.

15. The Joint Committee believes that the short-term visits under the programme will provide interesting and stimulating contacts for young persons for whom such opportunities would otherwise be lacking. It hopes that there will be an adequate Irish participation in this aspect of the programme. These short-term training periods are to last for a minimum period of three weeks and it has been represented to the Committee that judging by previous experience there may be difficulty in inducing Irish employers to release young workers for more than two weeks. The Committee believes that the National Manpower Service, as the competent authority in this country, should use its best endeavours to persuade employers to co-operate by releasing their young employees for the full period of any training period for which they are selected.

16. It is also the Joint Committee’s opinion that Ireland’s participation should not be confined to the short-term visits. It has been suggested to the Committee that Irish participation in the long-term exchanges could face considerable difficulties. The Committee hopes that these difficulties can be overcome. The long-term exchanges involve both language and vocational training which could be of considerable benefit to young Irish workers. One suggestion made to the Committee was that these long-term exchanges might be arranged for some of those engaged on apprenticeship training under AnCO as part of their courses. It is a suggestion which in the Committee’s view merits careful consideration. In selecting participants the Committee believes that there should be due regard to skills for which a need exists in this country.

Acknowledgements

17. The Joint Committee is extremely grateful to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Irish Transport and General Workers’ Union, the Federated Union of Employers, the Confederation of Irish Industry, and AFS Ireland for their help to the Committee in considering the programme. It also owes a particular debt of gratitude to Dr. Alan Harrison, Mr. Peter Mooney and Mr. Michael Wall for the trouble they took to ensure that the Committee was fully briefed on all aspects of the programme.

(Signed) ALEXIS FITZGERALD,

Chairman of the Joint Committee.

19th December, 1979.