Amazon lobbyists have been banned from the European Parliament after refusing to attend a hearing on the appalling working conditions in its warehouses. At the hearing in January, MEPs heard from workers how they are “considered robots” tasked with achieving impossible productivity targets under constant surveillance. 

National governments have reduced the top up of the EU budget until 2027 from an initial objective of €100 billion to €65 billion. The review of the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), adopted yesterday by the EU, determines EU funding up to the end of 2027. The ETUC warns that EU funding to support working people through the digital and environmental transitions, to research and to strengthening care systems is facing severe cuts. Frugal Europe

Employers and some governments who use vexatious legal threats to try and stop strikes and gag workers and trade unions could be fined in future under a new EU directive given final approval by the European Parliament today.

The deaths of more than 30 construction workers on building sites across Europe over the last four months show the urgent need for EU action to raise safety standards in the sector.  The spate of fatal accidents involves many cross-border and migrant workers, who are more vulnerable to exploitation through subcontracting, undeclared or illegal work, and bogus self-employment.  The number of fatal accidents across construction is increasing across Europe, according to the latest data from Eurostat, however many also go unreported.  

The European Commission has published details of the positive impact of public investment - on the same day that the Council is to sign-off on austerity rules which would severely reduce future public investment. 

Overwhelming majority of EU member states have been held back in bringing in protections for delivery riders, taxi drivers and carers among others. Millions of workers will continue to be forced into false self-employment after a small number of national governments torpedoed the chance to find a deal on the platform work directive. Exactly 799 days since the Commission proposal, representatives of the French, German, Greek and Estonian governments vetoed the agreement found in trilogue negotiations between the EU institutions last week.

Europe’s weakening economy shows we cannot afford record interest rates or a return to austerity, trade unions are warning in response to the European Commission’s latest forecast. The  Winter 2024 Economic Forecast published today by the European Commission states:

The ETUC congratulates Judith Kirton-Darling on her appointment as General Secretary of industriAll Europe, as well as Isabelle Barthès as Deputy General Secretary. Having jointly led the organisation since May 2023, the industriAll Europe Executive Committee today confirmed her as General Secretary to lead the organisation until the end of the current mandate period in May 2025.

Trade unions and employers today agreed measures designed to end the gridlock in European social dialogue and better address joint challenges like climate change and digitalisation. The appointment of a social dialogue envoy within the European Commission is part of the plans to increase cooperation set out in the declaration agreed at the Val Duchesse summit today.  

Dear Readers, We have just published the January 2024 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

Failure to deliver on a promise to improve protection from cancer-causing asbestos will have serious consequences for the health of people and democracy, trade unions have warned the European Commission President. In a letter sent to Ursula von der Leyen today, unions remind her that a commitment to deliver legislation on the screening and registration of asbestos in European buildings was included in the Commission’s work programme for 2023.

Responding to the European Central Bank's decision to keep interest rates at record levels, European Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Esther Lynch said: “Record interest rates are piling unnecessary financial pressure on working people and risk pushing the economy into a job-destroying recession.” “That is a high price to pay for a policy which economists have said is not actually bringing down inflation.

The European Labour Authority (ELA) needs more powers and resources to properly tackle the exploitation of cross-border workers, the ETUC will tell policymakers today. Non-payment of wages, social security fraud, health and safety breaches and poor-quality accommodation are among the most common rights violations faced by some of Europe’s 10 million mobile workers.

The European Commission today presented its proposal for a revision of the directive on European Works Councils (EWCs), the voice of workers in multinational companies. The proposal clarifies the decisions over which the EWCs must be consulted; management must finalise any consultation before taking a decision; EWCs must get adequate funding.

EU member states could be forced to collectively cut their budgets by more than 100 billion Euro next year under the Council’s plans to reintroduce austerity measures. France (26bn), Italy (25bn), Spain (14bn), Germany (11bn), Belgium (8bn) and the Netherlands (6bn) would have to make the biggest annual cuts to meet the deficit reduction targets within four years. Member states could request to extend the cuts over a seven year period but risk to be in exchange for commitments to harsher anti-worker economic reforms.

The Council under the leadership of the Belgian presidency of the EU must deliver a strong platform work directive as a first step towards ending precarious work and returning to the social Europe envisioned by Jacques Delors. That is the call Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), made in Namur at the first meeting of employment and social affairs ministers under the Belgian presidency, welcoming the focus put on quality jobs and on the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The EU Council today failed to approve the outcome of trialogue negotiations on the platform work directive. Responding to the decision, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said: “A balanced agreement giving the most basic rights to platform workers is being held up for no good reason based on the objections of a small minority. "This sends the wrong message to hardworking taxi drivers and delivery workers during their busiest period of the year.

The benefits of collective bargaining to work-life balance are revealed this Christmas in EU data which shows workers in countries with the highest levels of coverage enjoy up to a month more leisure time - without loss of pay - every year than other workers. An analysis to coincide with the holidays by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) of Eurofound data on collectively agreed working time for full-time workers found that:

Dear Readers, We have just published the December 2023 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

EU finance ministers have today finalised the Council’s position on the reform of the EU’s economic governance rules. 

The European Commission is moving to postpone the review of the crucial chemicals regulation, REACH, to the next Commission. Coupled with the news that it has cancelled the initiative on asbestos screening, this is a major blow to efforts to protect people’s health at work. The postponement was hinted at by Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius and confirmed by DG GROW in a letter received by ETUC this week. The review was due by 2022. In delaying it until after the current mandate’s end, the Commission has failed to live up to its responsibility.

The ETUC welcomes the news that accession negotiations will open with Ukraine and Moldova. The decisions to grant candidate status to Georgia and to open negotiations with Bosnia and Herzegovina once the necessary degree of compliance with the membership criteria is reached are also important. We call on the governments to work closely with trade unions in the countries so that Ukraine and Moldova meet accession requirements and fully adhere to the social acquis. The ETUC is calling for a social partner summit to take place before the 2024 EU-Ukraine Summit.

EU leaders have kicked the can down the road on the major economic challenges facing Europe after a lack of consensus at the European summit which saw no decision taken on the long-term budget or even a discussion of the fiscal rules. New fiscal rules, which set the spending and borrowing decisions of member states, were meant to enter into force on January 1 when the activation of the general escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact comes to an end.

The political agreement found today on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence directive is a step in the right direction on the path to securing decent and safe working conditions around the world. The measures will help in holding businesses accountable for standards in their supply chains, both inside and outside the EU, and for the impact of their operations on human rights and the environment. A full text is not yet available but the agreement is reported to include measures that:

EU leaders won’t be able to keep their promises on climate change if austerity rules are reintroduced, trade unions are warning after the conclusion of COP28. EU leaders used speeches at the summit in Dubai to renew their commitment to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.