More than 42 million jobs are at stake in the European Council’s talks over the EU recovery plan.
That’s the number of workers who have been placed on temporary unemployment during the coronavirus crisis, according to research by the European Trade Union Institute.
At the European Commission's Hearing today on the Future of the European Pillar of Social Rights with Vice President Dombrovskis and Commissioner Schmit, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said that “the European Pillar has to remain a key programme of the European Commission and be part of the economic recovery programme of the EU. All tools available to the EU have to be used in implementing the Social Pillar: including legislation, coordination of economic and social policies and targeted use of the EU budget.”
A European Commission initiative on fair minimum wages is needed not only to repair the damage caused by EU economic policies following the 2008 economic crisis, but also to deal with the effects of the corona virus crisis says the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), on the day the Commission launched its 2nd consultation on minimum wages.
“Many working people had not got over the effects of wage austerity from the previous crisis before the new crisis hit us” said Esther Lynch, Deputy General Secretary of the ETUC.
Trade unions are calling on employers to respect the right to disconnect as millions of people continue to work from home as the lockdown is lifted.
Before the outbreak, just one in ten people worked from home every day. But new European research shows that almost 40% of EU workers started working from home during confinement.
Trade unions are shocked and concerned that the European Commission still has no official plans to make workplaces safer in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
Commenting on the EU Recovery Package, Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said:
“Europe is facing the worst recession since the 1930s following the worst pandemic for a hundred years, which risks massive unemployment and inequality.
“That’s why the ETUC welcomes the ambitious EU recovery strategy proposed by Ursula von der Leyen. Funds of up to €750 bn for recovery, on top of 1.1 trillion from the MFF, are what Europe needs.
Commenting on the European Spring Package and Country Specific Recommendations, ETUC Confederal Secretary Liina Carr said
“The European Commission’s decisions not to enforce EU budgetary rules for member states, not to give fiscal guidance and not to open excessive deficit procedures are necessary and appropriate, especially but not only because of the current crisis.
“There must be no return to the catastrophic austerity measures taken after the financial crisis of 2008, not now, not after the crisis is over and not after a recovery.
Commenting on the adoption of the SURE Regulation by COREPER today, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said
“The ETUC welcomes the decision to adopt the EU job-saving scheme SURE, but regrets that it took one month for this process to be finalised due to the veto of a few member states which have put EU workers’ jobs and income at risk.
Commenting on the decision of the European Commission not to put Covid-19 in the highest risk category of the Biological Agents Directive, ETUC Deputy General Secretary Per Hilmersson said:
"While the ETUC welcomes the fact that the Covid-19 virus will be included in the Biological Agents Directive, we regret that the decision today, if confirmed by the Commission, would mean that it will be classified as an agent belonging only in the second highest risk group.
Trade unions are calling on the European Commission to rethink its proposal not to place Covid-19 in the highest risk group of biological agents.
The Commission and member states’ experts in the so-called Technical Progress Committee will decide on Thursday whether Covid-19 should be categorised under the Biological Agents Directive, with potential consequences for workplace health and safety and public health.
Currently, the Commission insists Covid-19 does not meet the definition of agents in the highest of four risk categories:
