Dear readers,Over recent months, trade unions across Europe have been working flat out to defend workers’ health and jobs during the coronavirus crisis. Our summer edition of National UPdates highlights just a few samples of action at national level, in different sectors and with different partners. They illustrate how unions and employers should have a shared interest in safeguarding workers and maintaining jobs and wages through the pandemic.

Speaking notes of the intervention by ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini at "Les rencontre économiques" – Aix en Provence, 4 July 2020

Eurostat figures published today show 253,000 workers lost their jobs in May, which follows losses of 397,000 jobs in April and 241,000 in March. It takes the total number of unemployed to 14.3 million. Commenting on the figures, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said:

Responding to the European Commission’s communication on reinforcing the Youth Guarantee, ETUC Confederal Secretary Ludovic Voet said: “Commissioner Schmit has said rightly that our young people deserve the very best opportunities but we cannot see how the proposal on the table guarantees that.

The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is disappointed and frustrated that self-employed and freelance workers will have to wait years for fair pay and decent working conditions. Self-employed and freelance workers are not allowed to collectively bargain in many EU countries because of incorrect interpretations of  EU competition law. 

The ETUC is calling on the European Commission to significantly improve its youth guarantee after new calculations warned youth unemployment will almost double this year. Eurostat figures show youth unemployment leapt by 159,000 in March alone as the lockdown began, taking the total number to 2.8m (15.4%), while many more struggle to survive from precarious work.

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

Today, the European Social Partners Framework Agreement on Digitalisation was signed by BusinessEurope, ETUC, CEEP and SMEunited to support the successful digital transformation of Europe’s economy and to manage its large implications for labour markets, the world of work and society at large.

Responding to the failure to reach agreement on the EU Recovery Plan at the European Council, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “Although this was somewhat expected, the delay in adopting the recovery plan is a blow to 42 million European workers who have been temporarily laid-off and need this investment to save their jobs. “Citizens don’t want to see more summits; they want the support they’ve been promised to arrive in time to make a difference and without austerity conditions.

Vulnerable cross-border workers could finally benefit from tougher enforcement of employment rights in a new EU push to protect them from exploitation, which the ETUC welcomes.

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.

European workers will benefit from better protection from Covid-19 following pressure from the ETUC and MEPs on the European Commission.

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.”