The European Trade Union Confederation is calling on national governments to maintain emergency job protection measures as EU unemployment rose for the sixth month in a row. According to Eurostat official figures published today, 238,000 more people became permanently unemployed between July and August. That means the number of permanent job losses since lockdown began in March is over 1.7 million, taking total EU unemployment to 15.6 million. The overall unemployment rate has increased from 6.4% to 7.4% since March, and from 14.5% to 17.6% among young people.

Commenting on the European Commission’s Rule of Law report ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said “The European Union is supposed to be a union of democratic countries where the rule of law is supreme – yet the rule of law is being undermined in a number of countries, and firm action is needed to re-establish it.

Dear Readers, We have just published the September 2020 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

Responding to the launch of the European Commission’s new Pact for Migration and Asylum, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said: “Trade unions know the meaning of solidarity and this is not it. Fortress Europe looks stronger than ever.        

Trade unions welcome action by the European Commission today to protect over 1.1 million people from work-related cancer by putting binding exposure limits on three dangerous substances. The Commission has proposed Binding Occupational Exposure Limit Values (BOELs) on Acrylonitrile, Nickel compounds and Benzene as part of an update to its Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive (CMD).

The European Commission’s Annual Sustainable Growth Strategy, published on Thursday,  provides few clues as to how it intends to deliver greater social fairness that it commits to in its €750bn Recovery and Resilience Plan, warns the ETUC. The Survey is supposed to show the next steps for the EU’s recovery, but does not reveal the next steps for social fairness and just transition.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) supports the European Commission’s proposal for a new -55% GHG emission reduction target, but the plan to achieve it published today overlooks the just transition needed to make the change fair for workers.    Commenting on the 2030 Climate Target Plan, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said:

Osnabruck, 17/09/2020 To be checked against delivery   Dear all,

Responding to the State of the Union speech, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “Ursula von der Leyen perfectly described Europe’s low pay problem today without clearly committing to the solutions: ending minimum wages below the poverty threshold and the right to collective bargaining for all.

Ursula von der Leyen has taken an important step towards securing trade union support for her plans on minimum wages today with a pledge in the Swedish media to protect and promote collective bargaining. The European Commission president said that the EU will “never” impose a statutory minimum wage on the six member states which set wages exclusively through collective bargaining – Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Italy and Sweden.

Wage levels in Europe are tied closely to whether workers are covered by collective bargaining, official figures show.

Commenting on the European Commission’s first Strategic Foresight Report, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said “ETUC supports any policy initiative that helps to manage change in a sustainable, fair and democratic way. “A longer-term perspective is useful, especially if it leads to new policies consistently contributing to a fairer and more inclusive society. "A shift from the current GDP-based narrative of measuring progress towards a more well-being centred one would be welcomed by the ETUC as this has been a long-standing demand.

The overwhelming majority of European trade unions representing 45 million workers have voted in favour of a new EU law to support fair minimum wages and collective bargaining. Following a full and open debate, members of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) endorsed a call for a European Directive with 85% of the votes in favour. 87 national unions from all over Europe took part in the vote, plus 10 European sectoral trade unions.