Brussels, 03/08/2004
In a bid to secure employment, trade unions have recently agreed to increase working time in a number of company-level agreements. Although the number of such cases remains limited, and the associated measures are company-specific, there are opportunistic employer and government 'rabble rousers' throughout Europe who are abusing these arrangements to stir up public opinion in favour of a general increase in working hours."
It is very strange to see that the very same people who oppose the practice of sector-wide collective bargaining now arguing that measures which provide relief for two or three individual companies should become the norm for all firms throughout Europe. What Europe needs is not longer working hours, but smarter ways of working" says the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary John Monks.
A general lengthening of the working week will not alleviate, but rather worsen Europe's employment problem. Unless accompanied by a 15% rise in demand and production, a 15% increase in working time will jeopardise one in every seven jobs. It is hard to see where this 15% increase in demand Europe-wide is supposed to come from. The end result will be low growth, growth without jobs and an economy teetering on the brink of deflation edge.
ETUC will organise counter measures to this perverse offensive in an attempt to defend the crucial right to a shorter working time, wrested by workers over the past decades. To this end, ETUC will provide its affiliates with accurate information on the specific contents of the agreements in question. Moreover, ETUC's committee on the coordination of collective bargaining in Europe will engage in further exchanges of information and discuss the situation at its upcoming September meeting.