EU applauds McDonald’s mobility initiative

A new EU-wide initiative by fast-food chain McDonald’s to boost workers’ mobility has been praised by EU employment commissioner Vladimír Špidla.

The “McPassport”, launched on September 12 by the fast-food giant, will enable the company’s employees to record their geographical and professional mobility.

“I am convinced that this kind of initiative directly contributes to convincing employees that mobility must increasingly become a natural part of their careers,” Špidla said at the launch of the project.

The European commission has made 2006 the European year of workers’ mobility in an attempt to instil a little wanderlust into the continent’s relatively sedentary workforce.

The proportion of Europeans living and working in another member state has risen from 1.5 per cent to two per cent  in the last five years, according to commission figures – a figure partly due to the movement of workers from the new EU member states.

This compares to 2.8 per cent of Americans working in a different state, though that proportion has dropped from 3.4 per cent in 2000.

“This initiative by McDonald’s is an excellent example of interaction between the creation of a policy and its implementation on the ground,” Špidla argued – although he noted that the company in question is American, not European.

Špidla said that EU governments must urgently work on promoting mobility among their workers – according to commission estimates, two to three million jobs across the EU are not filled in great part because of the lack of mobility among the continents’ workers. 

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