Esther Lynch was elected as ETUC Confederal Secretary at the Paris Congress in 2015. She has extensive trade union and legal experience at an Irish, European and International level and has played a key role in developing trade union strategies in Ireland and internationally. Her trade union experience began when she was elected as a shop steward in the 1980s. Before coming to the ETUC, she was the Legislation and Social Affairs Officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). Within the ETUC, Esther has a wide-ranging portfolio with responsibility for collective bargaining and wage policy, public procurement, fundamental and trade union rights, labour law, and health and safety. She leads ETUC interventions on the European Pillar of Social Rights, the European Commission’s Undeclared Work Platform and the ILO Future of Work Initiative. She manages the work of three ETUC Committees along with the Legal Strategy Group, NETLEX the ETUC Labour Law Expert Group. She is currently spearheading a major campaign for a pay rise in Europe. She oversees the political work of the ETUI in respect of Health and Safety and she has led a successful campaign on workplace cancers that led to a Covenant between Business Europe, the Commission and the ETUC.