The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) have followed closely the collective bargaining rounds in the Turkish public sector, informed throughout by our affiliates.

The ETUC sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, David Sassoli, President of the European Parliament, Charles Michel, President of the European Council to raise the need for the EU institutions to take immediate action and ensure that all EU Member States work together for the safe passage out of Afghanistan and asylum for anyone in danger. The EU and Member States must do all that they can to protect all trade union, human and women's rights activists, journalists and those who have campaigned for freedom, democracy and equality.

The ETUC offers sincere condolences to all the people, families and communities hit by the flooding in Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg and The Netherlands. Today, on the Belgian national day of mourning for the victims of the floods, the ETUC expresses its horror at the scale of devastation, solidarity with all the victims and their loved ones, and thanks emergency service workers and all workers and volunteers involved in helping to deal with the impacts of the floods. 

Statement by the ETUC Women’s Committee on the ratification of ILO C190 Adopted by the ETUC Women’s Committee on 24 June 2021 Every worker, no matter who they are or what work they do, deserves the protection of ILO Convention 190 concerning violence and harassment in the world of work.

The ITUC and the ETUC have welcomed the EU’s adoption of a new financial instrument for the block’s external action for the period 2021-27, the ‘Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument - Global Europe’ (NDICI-Global Europe).

On 4th of March 2021, the European Commission has presented a proposal for a Gender Pay Transparency Directive. 

European Trade Union Confederation and Social Platform statement on the Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the EU During the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council (EPSCO) meeting on 14 June, EU Ministers will discuss the European Commission’s Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages in the EU. We hereby urge EU Ministers to demonstrate their full political support for the proposed Directive.

The ETUC salutes the enormous efforts that have been made by citizens and organisations to ensure that multi-national companies are required by the European Union to report country by country on their economic activities. This is vital to ensure that multinationals pay their fair share of tax in the countries where their profits are generated, and do not engage in clever accounting to end up declaring only where taxes are very low.   Today the European Union is in final secret negotiations to agree a deal on public country by country reports (pCBCR).

On 21 April 2021, the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposal on the regulation of artificial intelligence. The regulation is the follow-up to the 2020 White Paper process, in which the ETUC also participated. The proposed regulation builds on the internal market rules regulating the development and placement of products and services using AI in the EU single market. The regulation does not address liability. In this context, the Commission refers to the revision of the Product Liability Directive which is foreseen in the second half of the year.

The ETUC Collective Bargaining and Wage Coordination Committee strongly supports the call by UNIEuropa for Amazon to recognise the right of their workers to unionise and begin collective bargaining negotiations.

The European Commission published today an update of its New Industrial Strategy that was adopted in March 2020. The aim of this update is to better identify the challenges and lessons coming from the COVID19 crisis, to further accelerate the green and digital transition, to strengthen the resilience of EU’s single market and to improve the strategic autonomy of the European Union.

Women are at greater exposure to the consequences of the economic crisis resulting from the pandemic. This Recovery needs to put the achievement of equality at the centre.  We are calling for   1. More support for trade unions so that they can spearhead the fight for gender equality. When women join together in their trade union they can bargain for a better deal, increased pay, more security, training, health and safety, a say over working hours, fairer promotions, more paid leave and a decent pension.