Brussels, 18/01/2011
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) reminds finance ministers that labour market flexibility does not create more jobs. Flexibility simply promotes precarious work, drives out good jobs, and creates high and rising inequalities.
labour market flexibility is at the root of this crisis: in the absence of demand growth led by decent wages and stable contracts, debt booms had to take over and drive aggregate demand forward. When these debt booms went bust, they wrecked the economy and the financial system: precarious work practices got Europe into this crisis, and finance ministers are totally wrong to think that they will get us out of it..
According to John Monks, general secretary of the ETUC: “Finance ministers and DG ECFIN must stop forcing member states to weaken collective bargaining systems as is happening in Ireland. Instead, they should urgently focus on how to prevent financial markets from bringing down one member state after the other”.