Euroleather

Conclusion of the Project

On 28 April 2022 COTANCE and IndustriAll-Europe reviewed their Social Dialogue project ERICA started in February 2021.

In addition to the online database, 5 workshops organised at national level by the project partners where they addressed key issues of the domestic Social Dialogue ranging from education & training to health & safety at the workplace or collective bargaining.

The social partners were happy with the success of the Final Conference held on 5 April and the two Panels with high level speakers on skills and sustainability. Over 100 participants from all over Europe and beyond were in attendance! They expressed their satisfaction for the quality of the event, the interpretation in 7 languages that allowed also non-English speakers to follow easily, the balanced participation of workers and employers and for the significant interest seen from brands in the audience, accounting for over 10% of participants.

COTANCE President Manuel Rios said “With projects like this, the European tanning sector demonstrates with simplicity - but not without pride - the level of social maturity it has reached; a European feature for what we are envied in many parts of the world. Perhaps this initiative will bring some public attention to the values of our industry.”

IndustriAll-Europe Deputy General Secretary Judith Kirton-Darling said "I would again highlight the importance of social dialogue in this sector as well as in other sectors of industry. The Erica project has proved to be an example of good and best practices in collective agreements in the leather industry as a testimony of a well-functioning social dialogue. IndustriAll hopes that the online database will include and expand the number of countries that have no social dialogue at all. The Erica Project can map the area which are relevant to Social Partners and assist collective agreements in all countries involved".

Brussels, 29 April 2022

Final Event

Update: You missed our final event? Fear not, you may catch up on our YouTube channel where the whole conference has been recorded.

The Final Conference of the ERICA project will be held online on 5 April, 10:00-12:30 CET.
The database and the conclusions of the exercise will be presented and be the basis for two highly interesting panels with sectoral stakeholders.

Interpretation will be provided in : EN, DE, ES, FR, HU, IT, PT.

Agenda:

Welcoming words
Presentation of the Social Dialogue initiative and the ERICA Database
Key interests of the sector’s Social Partners: Panel 1: The Skills Challenge
Key interests of the sector’s Social Partners: Panel 2: Sustainability & Leather
Conclusions

Speakers and Panelists:

Manuel Rios, CEO Industrias Peleteras, President of COTANCE
Judith Kirton-Darling, Deputy Secretary General of industriAll-Europe
Marie-Hélène Pradines, Head of Unit, DG Grow
Massimo Zordan, Uiltec Vicenza/Verona
Agnès Thomasset, ITECH
Andreas Meyer, Verband der Deutschen Lederindustrie (tbc)
Christina Hajagos-Clausen, Textile and Garment Industry Director, IndustriAll Global Union
Debbie Burton, Pittards/Leather Naturally
Deborah Taylor, Sustainable Leather Foundation
Fabiana Orlandi, UNIC-Concerie Italiane

December News: the ERICA project reaches the half-way mark as the partnership meets in its 3rd Steering Committee

The ERICA (see hereunder) partners have successfully completed the first phase of their work programme. Indeed, the main elements of the Collective Agreements of the tanning sector in the 7 participating EU Member States have now been collected in order to be integrated into an on-line database. The technical work on the Repository is also almost completed.

With 26 search topics developed in over 30,000 words, available both in the original language and in English, this unique tool will allow the Social

Partners in the tanning sector to compare key topics of relevance in support of their respective collective bargaining and spread best practice. While the searchable database will be private to the partners, a public area will offer a description and general information on the Collective Agreements as well as other relevant information and the conclusions of the project.

The European Leather Industry is again demonstrating leadership in social matters, offering tools that serve both employers and workers to design the labour relations of the future.  

With this first milestone, partner associations in Spain, Hungary, Portugal, France, Italy and Germany will start organising national workshops in Social Dialogue on topics related to the subject matter, including skills development and sustainability. These meetings will take place between January and March 2022.

Save the Date!

A final event will be organised on 5 April 2022. This on-line event will allow all the stakeholders of the sector to gather and discover this unique tool and debate on essential aspects of relevance for the future of the leather value chain

February 2021:  A Repository for the European Leather Industry's Collective Agreements - ERICA

On 15 February 2021, COTANCE, industriAll-Europe and the national partner associations held the first Steering Committee meeting of their new Social Dialogue project ERICA (Leather: European Repository of the Industry's Collective Agreements). The EU-sponsored initiative will last fifteen months until April 2022 and is developed with national affiliates from 7 Member States (see hereunder).

The main task of the ERICA project will be to create an on-line database gathering the national Collective Agreements of the European leather sector. This database, open to the project partners, will allow a comparative analysis of key elements agreed on by the partnership.

In addition to the Repository of Collective Agreements, the partners will also organise national workshops in Social Dialogue where both sides of the industry will discuss key topics of national collective bargaining, thereby fostering the understanding of the European Social Dialogue and spreading best practice.

A final event will be organised at the end of the project to introduce the Repository and the conclusions of the national discussions to the industry's stakeholders.

Project reference: VS/2021/0013
Coordinator: COTANCE / Co-coordinator: industriAll European trade union
Partners: