ETUC urges European employment ministers to take action for better jobs
Over 100 trade unionists from all over Europe have taken part in a two-day conference, organised by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), to discuss job quality. Their main message is that the ‘better jobs’ component in the Lisbon agenda of ’more and better jobs’ has been forgotten. Involuntary part-time, fixed-term and fake independent work is spreading. There is already too much flexibility and too little security for workers in Europe.
The ETUC calls on European employment ministers and leaders at the forthcoming Spring Council meeting to move from lip service to action on job quality by:
calling on each Member State to include in its national reform plan proposals for better implementation of existing European social directives and fundamental principles such as non-discrimination and equal treatment.
urgently enlarging the existing European social acquis through regulation of temporary agency work, a right for workers to obtain flexible working hours, and better parental leave provisions.
Says ETUC Confederal Secretary Walter Cerfeda: “Europe should urgently rediscover the productive power of having good social standards in the workplace. Robust social standards make it in the employers’ interest to improve work organisation and to offer good quality jobs so that productivity is increased.”
ANNEX: Conference programme
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