Pressure is mounting on the EU to legislate to hold EU businesses accountable for violations of human rights and environmental standards across the world. The 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh caused the death of 1,134 garment workers and injured about 2,500 people. International clothing factories and brands that were subcontracting the production of their products paid no attention to the disastrous working conditions of suppliers they worked with directly or indirectly.

Employers, legislators and law enforcement bodies are not doing enough to tackle violence and harassment at work, a survey of European women trade union leaders has found. Carried out January-February 2021, the ETUC survey of women union leaders in 21 European countries found that only

The European Commission has finally published its proposal for a directive on pay transparency - 460 days after President von der Leyen took office with the

Responding to the European Commission’s action plan on implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Effective Active Support for Employment, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “The time for a socially fairer Europe has come. This action plan could make it a reality. “The need for a more social Europe has never been stronger. The Covid crisis has exposed the problems with a Europe built on insecure work, low wages and badly funded public services.

Commenting on the European Commission’s proposal to extend the ‘escape clause’ from the Stability and Growth Pact, European Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Luca Visentini said:

The gap in earnings between the richest and poorest Europeans had got wider even before the Covid crisis struck, official EU data shows.

Dear Readers, We have just published the February 2021 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

The European Commission is finally set to present its pay transparency directive on 4 March – 460 days after President von der Leyen took office on a pledge to deliver it “within 100 days.” But now ETUC’s hopes for progress on reducing the gender pay gap are being undermined by conflict in the European Commission’s policymaking with what seems to be THREE different versions of the draft Directive being leaked.  

The European Commission published today its new Adaptation Strategy designed to increase the resilience of the EU against climate change consequences.   While the European Trade Union Confederation strongly welcomes the idea of developing a new EU Adaptation Strategy, we regret to see that the one proposed by the Commission today fails to protect European workers against climate change consequences.

The ETUC is calling on the European Commission to face down cynical new efforts by platform companies to avoid their most basic obligations to their workers. The Commission will tomorrow launch a consultation on improving the working conditions in platform companies like Uber, Deliveroo or Glovo.

Major court rulings against the exploitative employment practices of platform companies this week show the urgency over EU action over this broken business model. 

More than 24 million workers on low wages in the EU would receive a much-needed pay rise if trade union proposals for the EU’s draft Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages are accepted. The European Trade Union Confederation is pushing for a ‘threshold of decency’ to be included in the legislation that would ensure statutory minimum wages could never be paid at less than 60% of the median wage and 50% of the average wage in the Member State.

In light of recent complications with the Covid-19 vaccines roll out, the ETUC believes that a higher degree of democratic control is needed over the process and that people must come before profit. While unions fully support the principle of European coordination on vaccines as a means of avoiding vaccine nationalism, the process so far has been blighted by a lack of transparency in procurement and unexplained delays in production which have cost lives and livelihoods.