Dear President Michel,
I am contacting you regarding the ongoing discussions on the EU Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 and in view of the European Council meeting on 27/28 June.
The ETUC is concerned that – according to the information received – the draft of the Strategic Agenda still does not include the necessary focus on the improvement of the situation for working people, their families and communities.
The European Trade Union Confederation, representing more than 45 million workers from across Europe, calls on the European Council to include in the next Strategic Agenda the clear objective to deliver quality jobs in every sector and in every region, including by supporting collective bargaining and improving working conditions.
The Strategic Agenda should guarantee support for collective bargaining, in addition to social dialogue, including the 80% collective bargaining coverage target, and to stress the need to improve working conditions.
It is also of high importance to ensure that the European Union continues to advance towards the full implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, in line with the La Hulpe Declaration and the Val Duchesse Declaration.
Actions against social dumping and fraud are also necessary to ensure fair mobility.
It is also urgent to implement a strong European industrial policy with significant and effective public and private investment that underpins quality jobs and social progress, and to guarantee universal rights-based access to high-quality public services, including childcare and transport, and a right for service workers to provide quality services.
We underscore the need for more secure jobs throughout Europe, jobs that fully respect workers and trade union rights, that guarantee trade union involvement in the anticipation and management of change to ensure just green and digital (AI) transitions, with collectively bargained wages and fair conditions of employment, and in particular for ending precarious work.
Actions will be necessary also to ensure the right to training without costs for workers and during working time, introduce a ban of unpaid traineeships, protect teleworkers’ rights and the right to disconnect, ensure healthy and safe workplaces and tackle psychosocial risks, introduce the “human in control” principle for Artificial Intelligence in the world of work.
A revision of the Directives on public procurement is necessary to ensure that public money goes to organisations that respect workers’ and trade union rights, that negotiate with trade unions and whose workers are covered by collective agreements. In addition, social conditionalities must be attached to all EU funds or other financial supports to business as well as environmental and tax conditionalities.
Also, the ETUC warns against competitiveness approaches that exert downward pressure on wages, collective bargaining or rights, and in particular we sound an alarm bell about administrative burden reduction leading to deregulation or an inability to monitor and inspect compliance. It is of paramount importance that any initiatives around better regulation guarantee the protection and reinforcement of the EU’s environmental and social standards.
In view of the finalisation of the EU Strategic Agenda 2024–2029, please find here the priorities for the next years identified by trade unions all across Europe in the ETUC Manifesto for the 2024 European Parliament elections “Delivering a Fair Deal for Workers”.
Working people and trade unions from across Europe are following closely the discussions in the European Council, expecting the European Union to deliver better living and working conditions.
We urge you to ensure that the necessary focus on social progress and the priorities mentioned above are fully incorporated in the final version of the Strategic Agenda.
Looking forward to your reply, we remain available for any further exchanges.
Best regards,
Esther Lynch
General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation