Moves by European Parliament legislators Denis Radtke (EPP) and Agnes Jongerius (S&D) to improve the proposed Directive on Adequate Minimum Wages offer valuable changes for working people, especially the low paid, says the ETUC. But ETUC Deputy General Secretary warned against any watering down of the proposals: 

The European Commission today published a proposal for a directive which would define new requirements on large European companies to report on environmental, social and governance matters.* Reacting to this proposal, European Trade Union Confederation Confederal Secretary Isabelle Schömann said:

Every EU member state was forced into  emergency reforms of their social protection systems by Covid-19, according to new research which highlights the need for permanent improvements.   A study by the European Trade Union Institute on social protection during the pandemic found 24 out of 27 member states increased the value, duration or eligibility conditions of unemployment benefits or income support.

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

The European Union has made little progress towards its aim of raising the quality of employment over the last decade and some countries have even gone backwards, new ETUC research has found. 

Commenting on the Statement of the Members of the European Council on 25 March 2021, Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said: “We appreciate the efforts put in place by the EU and Member States to provide vaccines to the whole population in a reasonable time, and to make pharmaceutical companies accountable, but we reiterate our demand to the EU to push for waivers on patents and to Member States to guarantee priority to essential workers and vulnerable groups of people.

MEPs on the European Parliament's Employment Committee approved today with an overwhelming majority significant amendments to the Carcinogens and Mutagens Directive, to protect workers from the risks of exposure to dangerous substances at work. Among the adopted amendments there is the long-lasting ETUC demand to extend the Directive's scope to substances toxic to reproduction and the inclusion of Hazardous Medicinal Products in its Annex I.

Trade unions speeches delivered at Tripartite Social Summit on 24 March 2021:

Dear readers, As European countries continue to battle waves of pandemic and lockdown,  trade unions are fully occupied in defending workers’ health, welfare and livelihoods. March is also the month when trade unionists celebrate International Women’s Day, and attention turns to the discrimination women continue to suffer both at work and in society. This edition of National Updates highlights a few of the efforts and achievements of national unions across Europe.

The European Trade  Union Confederation is seriously concerned that the decision of the President of Turkey to pull his Government country out of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence is a very retrograde step and urges the Government to reconsider this action and reaffirm its international commitment to protect the human rights of women and girls and all their citizens.

The EU-Georgia Association Council meeting on 16 March is called on to do more to advance workers’ rights and European values by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and Georgian Trade Union Confederation (GTUC). ETUC and GTUC point out that

Spain has become the first EU member state to tell platform companies that food delivery riders must be recognised as workers and automatically receive rights like social security contributions.  The law, which was negotiated by the ETUC’s affiliates in Spain, covers the following food delivery giants: Deliveroo, Glovo, Stuart, Amazon and UberEats. Other platform companies will also have to inform trade unions about how their algorithms affect working conditions.

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.