The ETUC welcomes the launch of a consultation, and debate, on responding to the impacts of an ageing society. ETUC Confederal Secretary Liina Carr said “Ageing is not just a cost. Longer lives are a benefit and should be valued for the greater knowledge, experience and the potential benefits for family and community life.”

ETUC remembers and honours the victims of the Holocaust. We reaffirm our opposition to antisemitism, racism and all forms of intolerance that can lead to targeting people with violence. We reaffirm our total opposition to Nazism and Fascism. We recall that among its first victims were many trade unionists. We remember that the first Nazi concentration camps were built to imprison political opponents. We reiterate our opposition to misogyny and homophobia.

ETUC welcomes the European Parliament’s interest in the right to disconnect. It is an important right for the quality and dignity of life of working people. It is a right that European employers’ organisations refuse to recognise and are trying to block. The ETUC is calling on the S&D Group to withdraw the last-minute damaging amendment preventing legislative action on the right to disconnect for three years – which in reality means around eight years (given the length of the legislative process and coming-into-force period).

Brussels, 19 January 2021   Members of the European Parliament via email   Dear MEPs, Workers experience a lot difficulties securing the right to disconnect in reality and the ETUC and the ETUFs urge the Commission to come forth with a proposal for a Directive quickly. Tomorrow, Wednesday the 20th January, amendments to the report on the right to disconnect will be tabled.

Letters sent to Bulgarian, Croatian, German, Hungarian and Italian Ministers of Labour and Finance  Call to extend emergency measures to non-standard workers (including self-employed)   Dear Ministers, 

Statement adopted at the Executive Committee meeting on 09-10 December 2020 ETUC Revised Statement on the second Covid-19 wave: Emergency measures and Recovery Strategy

To mark International Migrants Day on 18 December, ETUC honours and thanks all workers, migrant and local, who continue to risk their lives to provide essential services and keep vital sections of the economy going through the COVID19 pandemic. 13% of key workers in essential jobs in the EU are migrants. Up to 1/3 domestic and care workers, & labourers in construction & mining, all key workers, are foreign born.

Dear Michel, I am contacting you to raise the concern of trade unions across Europe that with few days to the end of the transition period, agreement is still to be reached.  This uncertainty adds to the already destabilising employment situation due to the pandemic and the planned end of the support measures next year.

At the occasion of the World Day for Human Rights and the SOLIDAR Silver Rose Award ceremony, the ITUC, the ETUC and SOLIDAR, reiterate their support and solidarity with the struggle of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) to promote social justice, human rights and workers’ rights in the country.  

ETUC Statement adopted at Executive Committee in their meeting 9th December 2020 in support of the FGTB/ABVV trade union leaders and activists condemned for exercising their rights to collective action ETUC is gravely concerned by the recent condemnations of FGTB/ABVV leaders and activists by the criminal courts in Belgium for exercising their fundamental right to take collective action in defense of the rights and interests of the workers they represent.

ETUC Letter to EU Chief Brexit Negotiator Michel Barnier  Level playing field guarantees in the EU-UK deal Dear Michel, We understand negotiations are reaching their limits in terms of timing and of what is feasible or acceptable for the EU on the remaining critical issues of fisheries, governance and the level playing field.

Adopted by the Women’s Committee  The ETUC Women’s Committee stands beside women from across Europe who are fighting to fulfil their human rights, and namely their reproductive rights and their right to safe, legal and fully comprehensive healthcare in any circumstance[1].

Introduction As part of their autonomous work programme 2019-2021, on 17 September the European Social Partners organised a meeting on childcare provisions in the EU. This was part of a series of meetings bringing together EU and national social partners and experts to discuss how to improve the performance of labour markets and social systems. As a result, we have published the following statement: General remarks