The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) appreciates the effort of the European Commission to propose a Roadmap towards lifting Covid19 containment measures, but criticises it for failing on basic principles and neglecting to acknowledge the practicalities of a return to work, insufficiently mentioning either health and safety at work or the need to apply strict ‘precautionary’ measures. The ETUC asks the Commission to start an urgent and proper consultation with trade unions and employers to define a proper implementation of the Communication.

The European Trade Union Confederation is calling on the European Union to: 

“The Eurogroup has finally taken some important steps to help protect working people, support companies, fund public services and stabilise the economy through this crisis in the short-term.   “The activation of the ESM, the EIB and particularly of SURE goes in the right direction. We now ask all 27 member states’ governments to adopt this and the other measures before Easter. With 15 million jobs already affected by the lockdown, workers and companies cannot wait longer.

Criticising the failure of the Eurogroup to give its support to the EU’s €500bn package of economic aid to deal with the economic impact of corona virus, and continuing divisions over Eurobonds and ‘conditionalities’ for ESM funding,  ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said:

European trade unions are calling on EU finance ministers to agree a 500bn Euro support package to deal with the economic consequences of the coronavirus which has already hit over 10 million workers.   Estimates collected by the ETUC show that unemployment has risen by at least 4 million since the crisis began, while more than 7 million workers are on short-time work schemes.  

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) urges EU Finance Ministers and the Council meeting next week to approve the European Commission’s proposal for a €100 billion ‘SURE’ scheme to support short-term work and other measures to protect jobs and wages during the coronavirus crisis. The ETUC calls on Member States to swiftly put at the disposal of the European Commission the necessary guarantees to make the scheme operational as soon as possible!

Responding to the European Commission’s announcement of the SURE short-time work scheme, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “We are very pleased the European Commission has listened to our request to fast track the launch of the SURE unemployment reinsurance scheme and support short-time work measures. “The situation of working people affected by the COVID-19 breakdown is deteriorating every hour and the last thing Europe needs in the middle of this health emergency is mass unemployment and another economic crisis.

Dear Readers, We have just published the March 2020 edition of the ETUC newsletter. To read the document, please click here. Enjoy!

Photo credit: Credit Score Geek

European workers affected by the coronavirus crisis will keep receiving up to 100% of their normal wages under protections won by trade unions. ETUI research for the ETUC has found 18 EU countries, Norway and the UK have taken some measure to protect the jobs and wages of workers who have been temporarily laid off or had their hours reduced.  

Commenting on the outcome of today’s European Council online meeting, Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation said: “We totally agree with the Italian Prime Minister that the proposals put forward for dealing with the economic cost of the coronavirus crisis are completely inadequate. Some national leaders have wasted the opportunity to ensure workers’ livelihoods are protected, public health services are properly funded and we avoid another damaging recession killing thousands of companies. 

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)  and the Pan European Regional Council of the International Trade Union Confederation (PERC) strongly urge the European Council, meeting tomorrow, to approve the opening of accession negotiations with Albania and North Macedonia - righting the wrong decision that was made in October 2019.

The ETUC is calling on the Eurogroup to support corona bonds, and the European Commission to postpone its EU economic-policy making Semester.  “It is time to launch the EU pandemic-bonds” said Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC. “Europe risks a recession even worse than the one following the financial crisis of 2008-9 and needs to invest in protecting jobs and the economy.”