Legal provisions of COM(2024)132 -

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dossier COM(2024)132 - .
document COM(2024)132
date March 20, 2024


Chapter I
General provisions

Article 1
Subject matter

This Directive lays down a common framework of principles and measures to improve and enforce the working conditions of trainees and to combat regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships

Article 2
Definitions

For the purposes of this Directive, the following definitions apply:

(a) ‘traineeship’ means a limited period of work practice which includes a significant learning and training component, undertaken to gain practical and professional experience with a view to improving employability and facilitating transition to a regular employment relationship or accessing a profession;

(b) ‘trainee’ means any person undertaking a traineeship who has an employment contract or employment relationship as defined by the law, collective agreements or practice in force in every Member State with consideration to the case law of the Court of Justice;

(c) ‘regular employment relationship’ means any employment relationship that is not a traineeship;

(d) ‘regular employee’ means any person in a regular employment relationship.

Chapter II
Equal treatment

Article 3
Principle of non-discrimination

Member States shall ensure that, in respect of working conditions including pay, trainees are not treated in a less favourable manner than comparable regular employees in the same establishment, unless different treatment is justified on objective grounds, such as different tasks, lower responsibilities, work intensity or the weight of the learning and training component.

Where there is no comparable regular employee in the same establishment, the comparison shall be made by reference to the applicable collective agreement, or where there is no applicable collective agreement, in accordance with national law or practice.

Chapter III
Regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships

Article 4
Measures to combat regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships

Member States shall provide for effective controls and inspections conducted by competent authorities to detect and take enforcement measures against practices where a regular employment relationship is disguised as traineeship with the effect of granting lower levels of protection, including working conditions and pay, than the worker concerned would be entitled to under Union or national law, collective agreements or practice.

Article 5
Assessment of regular employment relationships disguised as traineeships

1. In order to determine whether a purported traineeship constitutes a regular employment relationship, competent authorities shall make an overall assessment of all relevant factual elements. That assessment shall take into account, among others, the following indicative elements:

(a) the absence of a significant learning or training component in the purported traineeship;

(b) the excessive duration of the purported traineeship or multiple and/or consecutive purported traineeships with the same employer by the same person;

(c) equivalent levels of tasks, responsibilities and intensity of work for purported trainees and regular employees at comparable positions with the same employer;

(d) the requirement for previous work experience for candidates for traineeships in the same or a similar field of activity without appropriate justification;

(e) a high ratio of purported traineeships compared with regular employment relationships with the same employer;

(f) a significant number of purported trainees with the same employer who had completed two or more traineeships or held regular employment relationships in the same or similar field of activity, prior to taking up the purported traineeship.

2. To enable competent authorities to carry out the assessment referred to in paragraph 1, the employer shall, upon request, provide those authorities with the following information:

(a) the number of traineeships and regular employment relationships

(b) the duration of traineeships;

(c) the working conditions, including pay, tasks and responsibilities of purported trainees and of regular employees at comparable positions;

(d) the descriptions of the learning and training components of traineeships;

(e) the vacancy notices for traineeships.

3. To facilitate the assessment referred to in paragraph 1, Member States shall:

(a) define a time limit indicating excessive duration of a traineeship and of repeated, including consecutive, traineeships with the same employer;

(b) require employers to include information on the expected tasks, working conditions, including pay, social protection, learning and training elements in the vacancy notices and advertisements for traineeships.

Member States may provide for exceptions to the time-limit in point (a) in cases where a longer duration is justified by objective grounds.

Chapter IV
Enforcement and supporting measures

Article 6
Implementation and enforcement of relevant Union law

Member States shall take effective measures to ensure that all relevant Union law applicable to workers is fully implemented and enforced in relation to trainees. In particular they shall:

(a) ensure that information on the rights of trainees is publicly available in a clear, comprehensive and easily accessible way;

(b) develop guidance for employers of trainees regarding the legal framework for traineeships, including relevant labour law and social protection aspects;

(c) provide for effective controls and inspections conducted by competent authorities to enforce relevant labour law in relation to trainees;

(d) ensure that the competent authorities are provided with the human, technical and financial resources necessary to perform effective controls and inspections and have the competence to impose effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties;

(e) develop the capability of the competent authorities, in particular through training and guidance, to proactively target and pursue non-compliant employers;

(f) ensure, in cooperation with the competent authorities, channels for trainees to report malpractice and poor working conditions, and provide information on those channels

Article 7
Right to redress

Member States shall ensure that trainees, including those whose employment relationship has ended, have access to effective and impartial dispute resolution and a right to redress, including adequate compensation, in the case of infringements of their rights arising from this Directive or from other Union law applicable to workers.

Article 8
Procedures on behalf or in support of trainees

Member States shall ensure that representatives of workers may engage in any relevant judicial or administrative procedure to enforce the rights and obligations arising from this Directive or from other Union law applicable to workers. They may act on behalf or in support of one or several trainees in the case of an infringement of any right or obligation arising from this Directive or from other Union law applicable to workers, with that trainee’s or those trainees’ approval.

Article 9
Protection against adverse treatment and consequences

1. Member States shall introduce the necessary measures to protect trainees and their representatives from any adverse treatment by the employer and from any adverse consequences resulting from a complaint lodged with the employer or resulting from any proceedings initiated with the aim of enforcing compliance with the rights provided for in this Directive or in other Union law applicable to workers.

2. In particular, Member States shall take the necessary measures to prohibit the dismissal or its equivalent, and all preparations for dismissal or its equivalent, of trainees on the grounds that they have exercised the rights provided for in this Directive or in other Union law applicable to workers.

3. Trainees who consider that they have been dismissed, or have been subject to measures with equivalent effect, on the grounds that they have exercised the rights provided for in this Directive, or in other Union law applicable to workers, may request the employer to provide duly substantiated grounds for the dismissal or the equivalent measures. The employer shall provide those grounds in writing.

4. Member States shall take the necessary measures to ensure that, when trainees referred to in paragraph 3 establish, before a court or other competent authority or body, facts from which it may be presumed that there has been such a dismissal or equivalent measures, it shall be for the employer to prove that the dismissal or equivalent measures were based on grounds other than those referred to in paragraph 2.

5. Member States shall not be required to apply paragraph 4 to proceedings in which it is for the court or other competent authority or body to investigate the facts of the case.

6. Paragraph 4 shall not apply to criminal proceedings, unless otherwise provided by the Member State.

Article 10
Penalties

Member States shall lay down the rules on penalties applicable to infringements of national provisions adopted pursuant to this Directive or the relevant provisions already in force concerning the rights which are within the scope of this Directive. The penalties provided for shall be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

Chapter V
Final provisions

Article 11
Non-regression and more favourable provisions

1. No provision in this Directive shall be construed as lowering the protection of workers afforded by other instruments of Union law, national law, collective agreements or practice.

2. This Directive shall not constitute valid grounds for reducing the general level of protection already afforded to workers, including trainees, within Member States.

3. This Directive shall not affect Member States’ prerogative to apply or to introduce laws, regulations or administrative provisions which are more favourable to workers or to encourage or permit the application of collective agreements which are more favourable to workers.

Article 12
Transposition and implementation

1. Member States shall take the necessary measures to comply with this Directive by [2 years after entry into force]. They shall immediately inform the Commission thereof.

2. When Member States adopt the measures referred to in paragraph 1, they shall contain a reference to this Directive or shall be accompanied by such reference on the occasion of their official publication. The methods of making such reference shall be laid down by Member States.

3. Member States shall communicate to the Commission the text of the measures of national law which they adopt in the field covered by this Directive.

4. Member States shall, in accordance with their national law and practice, take adequate measures to ensure the effective involvement of the social partners and to promote and enhance social dialogue with a view to implementing this Directive.

5. Member States may entrust the social partners with the implementation of this Directive, where the social partners jointly request to do so and provided that Member States take all necessary steps to ensure that they can at all times guarantee the results sought under this Directive.

Article 13
Reporting and review

1. By [5 years after the date of transposition], Member States shall communicate to the Commission all information concerning the implementation of this Directive that is necessary for the Commission to draw up a report. That information shall include data on traineeships for the purposes of allowing the proper monitoring and assessment of the implementation of this Directive.

2. The Commission shall submit the report referred to in paragraph 1 to the European Parliament and to the Council. The report shall, if appropriate, be accompanied by a legislative proposal.

Article 14
Entry into force

The Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Article 15
Addressees

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.