The EU-sponsored project ERICA (Leather: European Repository of the Industry’s Collective Agreements), started in February 2021. The partnership met in a third steering committee on 2 December.
The ERICA 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.
Contact: Andrea Husen-Bradley (press and communication), Patrizia Pitronaci (policy adviser)
This project is funded by the European Commission (DG Employment Budget line VS/2021/0013. Website: https://euroleather.com/news/projects/erica