Responding to the European Commission’s communication on reinforcing the Youth Guarantee, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:
“Commissioner Schmit has said rightly that our young people deserve the very best opportunities but we cannot see how the proposal on the table guarantees that.
“We have the highest-skilled generation we have ever seen, particularly in digital skills. So this generation doesn’t need never ending training, they need quality jobs. Young people want a job - not a bridge to a job.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is disappointed and frustrated that self-employed and freelance workers will have to wait years for fair pay and decent working conditions.
Self-employed and freelance workers are not allowed to collectively bargain in many EU countries because of incorrect interpretations of EU competition law.
Today the European Commission announced plans intended to fix the problem in the discussions on the Digital Services Act - which could go on for years.
The ETUC is calling on the European Commission to significantly improve its youth guarantee after new calculations warned youth unemployment will almost double this year.
Eurostat figures show youth unemployment leapt by 159,000 in March alone as the lockdown began, taking the total number to 2.8m (15.4%), while many more struggle to survive from precarious work.
Today, the European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitalisation was signed by BusinessEurope, ETUC, CEEP and SMEunited to support the successful digital transformation of Europe’s economy and to manage its large implications for labour markets, the world of work and society at large.
Responding to the failure to reach agreement on the EU Recovery Plan at the European Council, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said:
“Although this was somewhat expected, the delay in adopting the recovery plan is a blow to 42 million European workers who have been temporarily laid-off and need this investment to save their jobs.
“Citizens don’t want to see more summits; they want the support they’ve been promised to arrive in time to make a difference and without austerity conditions.
Vulnerable cross-border workers could finally benefit from tougher enforcement of employment rights in a new EU push to protect them from exploitation, which the ETUC welcomes.
More than 42 million jobs are at stake in the European Council’s talks over the EU recovery plan.
That’s the number of workers who have been placed on temporary unemployment during the coronavirus crisis, according to research by the European Trade Union Institute.
European workers will benefit from better protection from Covid-19 following pressure from the ETUC and MEPs on the European Commission.
The Commission had decided against putting Covid-19 in the highest risk group of its Biological Agents Directive without proper consultation of trade unions and the European Parliament.
MEPs threatened to use their power of veto over the Commission decision following concerns raised by trade unions about its consequences for workplace safety.
At the European Commission's Hearing today on the Future of the European Pillar of Social Rights with Vice President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Schmit, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said that “the European Pillar has to remain a key programme of the European Commission and be part of the economic recovery programme of the EU. All tools available to the EU have to be used in implementing the Social Pillar: including legislation, coordination of economic and social policies and targeted use of the EU budget.”
A European Commission initiative on fair minimum wages is needed not only to repair the damage caused by EU economic policies following the 2008 economic crisis, but also to deal with the effects of the corona virus crisis says the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), on the day the Commission launched its 2nd consultation on minimum wages.
“Many working people had not got over the effects of wage austerity from the previous crisis before the new crisis hit us” said Esther Lynch, Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC.
Trade unions are calling on employers to respect the right to disconnect as millions of people continue to work from home as the lockdown is lifted.
Before the outbreak, just one in ten people worked from home every day. But new European research shows that almost 40% of EU workers started working from home during confinement.
