Statement on Albania and North Macedonia accession to the EU
We regret the decision of the European Council not to open accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia and express our solidarity with workers and their trade unions from these counties. They face enormous challenges of decent work deficits, non-respect of the law, low wages, high levels of informal work, as well as systematic violation of fundamental workers’ rights and freedoms.
The ETUC stands in solidarity with the Chilean trade unions and the Chilean people in the biggest crisis of the country since the end of the military dictatorship.
We join the call of CUT Chile and the ITUC for the Government to restore the country's democratic institutions and give way to the biggest protest since 1990.
The ETUC has been calling for improvements of the rules on the coordination of social security systems for years.
We need improvements to the current rules to better fight against abuses and fraud and to strengthen mobile workers’, posted workers’ and frontier workers’ rights, as well as to improve and operationalise the cooperation between Member States.
Now it is possible to deliver much needed improvements to the legal framework by completing in a positive manner the negotiations on the revision of the Regulations on the coordination of social security systems.
Dear Presidents, Prime Minister,
Vice President, Commissioner, Ministers,
Colleagues from the social partners,
This is the last Tripartite Social Summit of the current European Commission, and also the last for Donald Tusk as President of the Council.
I would like to warmly thank Donald for the support and leadership you have shown in organising and driving the TSS over the last years. You have done this giving great consideration to the social partners’ ideas and proposals.
The European Commission has published today its Implementation Report on the Enforcement Directive on posting of workers, as well as a practical guidance on the rules regulating posting.
Statement presented at the ETUC EWC Annual conference 2019
Democracy at work is a fundamental value and a guiding principle of the European Union, recognised in the Treaties and in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. It needs to be high on any ambitious European and national political agenda. Democracy at work matters: for workers, for companies, for public services and for society.
Joint Climat Action Call cosigned by the ETUC
Scientists say that we face a climate emergency. We need decisive action in the next 10 years to put us on a transformative pathway in line with the targets of the Paris Agreement, including efforts to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C.
We must act immediately to get on track for a healthy, fair and liveable future. This will not only reduce devastating impacts of climate change but also bring major economic and social benefits, attract new investments, create new quality jobs and limit health damages.
All workers deserve to work in safe temperatures. In the week that many areas of Europe endure another heatwave, we call on the next European Commission to take this issue seriously and introduce a legislative instrument that recognises this increased risk to workers and provides a framework for protecting workers. Weather conditions do not respect national borders and so European action is required. Yet, unlike in other parts of the world, Europe has no binding legislation on safe maximum working temperatures.
ETUC Statement on EU-Swiss partnership agreement
"Swiss flanking measures for equal treatment of workers should not be sacrificed on the altar of market dogma!”
