ILO - Technical meeting on the future of work in the automotive industry: EU Statement

23.02.2021
Geneva

I speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

Point for discussion 1

The EU and its member states recognise the many challenges the industry is facing and have developed a number of policies to aid this transformation, aiming to capitalise on existing opportunities. In the opening statement, I have mentioned a few. Allow me to expand on my introduction.

The issues paper recognises the ongoing transformation of the whole industry, with the centre of gravity changing both geographically as well as in terms of new technologies, business models, and demographic shifts, ageing workforce and trade turbulence. New technologies and trends result from stricter emission standards and decarbonisation, as well as new mobility concepts, leading to expanding green and digital economies.

These ongoing trends are further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, mainly due to a significant drop in demand and investment. Decent work challenges are linked to pressure on both quantity and quality of the employment in the sector, particularly in relation to unprotected workers.

Moreover, rapid development of technologies used in the automotive sector (e.g. connected, automation, battery technologies) will require much more regular upskilling - the "half-life" of skills in the automotive sector is estimated to be only 5 years (i.e. skills will only be as half as valuable/useful after 5 years).

The shift to e-mobility will require, as pointed out in the Report, more highly skilled workers than needed for traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. While there are likely to be fewer jobs directly involved in vehicle manufacturing many of them will be of higher quality. Opportunities arising from technological development to develop high quality jobs warrants due protection and investment in skills development in this sector e.g. batteries for e-mobility

Ongoing transition offers new opportunities towards the expansion of sustainable green economy with the shift to e-mobility. Sharp increases in demand for electric vehicles paired with expected significant drop in demand for gasoline and diesel cars are likely to transform not only the industry but whole concept of mobility altogether.

Thank you Chair

Point for discussion 2

With regard to point for discussion 2, the EU and its member states underline the importance of fostering policies that work, facilitate the transition, while protecting workers, jobs and sustainable enterprises. Allow me to highlight few policies and measures.

Protecting workers in the workplace is fundamental, ensuring safe and healthy working conditions, taking account of all risks, including psychosocial ones. The industry should also provide for increased protection for workers particularly affected, including those in the informal economy, seasonal workers, temporary workers or the self-employed.

Ensuring gender equality in the industry, including increasing the attractiveness of the sector for women and youth is also key.

In tandem with above, robust and universal social protection including social protection floors, would go a long way to mitigate the impact on the most vulnerable groups, including those in the informal economy.

Protecting jobs remains another priority for the EU and its Member States, in particular during the pandemic. Employment support schemes, such as EU's SURE, youth employment supporting schemes or initiatives supporting SMEs, are all aimed at protecting jobs and mitigating the severely negative socio-economic consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

In order to manage transitions and foster employment in the industry, we need to promote skills development and lifelong learning. We underline the need to ensure close co-operation between relevant partners to develop and maintain the necessary skills e.g. regions at global and local level, local authorities, universities & training institutes, automotive clusters, chambers of commerce, individual companies with significant training facilities. This is a key objective of the new Skills Pact for the automotive sector - the Automotive Skills Alliance.

We underscore that responding to skills mismatches also needs to be tackled at sectoral level, in particular for SMEs. Each sector will have its own skill needs and challenges. The automotive sector is one of the first industrial ecosystems, in the EU, to establish a Pact for Skills (November 2020) with the overall objective to reskill 700.000 workers each year. In addition, the EU has invested, through the blueprint for sectoral skill initiative, in developing a long-term strategy to tackle skill needs for the automotive sector generally ("DRIVES") and the battery sector ("ALBATTS") specifically. These blueprints will also support the automotive Pact.

We also underline the fundamental importance of life-long and inter-generational learning, vocational training and apprenticeship programmes, exemplified by the renewed European Alliance for Apprenticeships, as well as better consideration of innovative educational tools, in particular for distant learning and training.

The transformation of the sector, further accelerated by the pandemic also provides us with a unique opportunity to ensure a just transition to a green economy. It should certainly inform and shape any recovery plans to ensure a sustainable future in which we have built back better.

The EU and its Member States again stress the relevance of MNE Declaration and underline the importance that human rights and decent work in global supply chains hold for the future of work in the automotive industry. Due diligence in global supply chains marks a vital element in strengthening responsible management and enabling spaces for decent job creation and sustainable development.

Last but not least, we consider social dialogue to be essential in anticipating and managing the changes needed to move forward. Social dialogue is needed at all levels, including at cross-border and company levels.

Point for discussion 3

With regard to Point of discussion 3, we would like to make the following comments

The EU and its Member States acknowledge, and support, the pivotal role the ILO has to play in assisting with the challenges the automotive industry is experiencing.

The ILO has provided a framework of valuable tools. The priorities for the automotive sector identified in the Centenary Declaration, the MNE declaration, the Decent Work agenda, among others, identify important priorities which we need to keep in mind when developing measures for the future of this industry. We underline the need to promote an enabling environment for entrepreneurship and sustainable enterprises.

We strongly encourage ILO’s pivotal role within the multilateral system through strengthened partnerships and collaboration with other international organizations, in particular as regards sustainable development goals and support to a just transition. This, in turn, would promote complementary macroeconomic, fiscal, education, active labour market and social protection policies.

We strongly emphasise the ILO’s role in the promotion, ratification and effective implementation of international labour standards and fundamental principles and rights at work – including robust and reinvigorated social dialogue and collective bargaining within the automotive industry. This should be complemented by the enhanced capacity of all constituents.

We also encourage the ILO to further develop sector-specific research, provide statistics and share knowledge on trends and developments in the sector, best practices with regard to decent work in the automotive sector, with the overall aim of strengthening the industry’s preparedness for future transitions. These activities should be complemented, where possible, with the provision of technical assistance, training, reskilling and upskilling of workers in the sector including lifelong learning, skills development policies and active labour market policies and practices.

Thank you, Chair