Brussels, 03–04/12/2008
In its resolution, ETUC calls for a salary policy that defends workers’ purchasing power and that increases it through the redistribution of productivity gains, albeit the worsening economic trend. Salary discrimination which already affects women – a 15% gender pay gap remains within a same professional category – involves both migrant workers and young people. For this reason, ETUC seeks to campaign even harder against wage dumping and salary discrimination, and to reassert the principle of ‘Equal pay for equal work’ as the guiding principle which should apply across all European Member States.
In terms of collective bargaining in 2009, ETUC urges its members to:
• remain loyal to ETUC’s traditional thrust on salary formation in order to avoid making the mistake of trying to escape the crisis by competitive moderation. Instead, salary increases and collective bargaining should be focusing on the sum of inflation and the upward trend in productivity;
• hold strong against any deflationary trends by ensuring a floor for salary growth in collective bargaining which, in any case, should be above the threshold of price stability and increase workers’ purchasing;
• take urgent action on the problem of low salaries and to mobilise appropriate instruments and policies to ensure that every European country imposes a decent minimum floor on salaries.
Moreover, the resolution calls for further improvements in transnational cooperation and initiatives of trade unions and businesses.
ETUC resolution
To download the ETUC Resolution on the salary campaign and guidelines for collective bargaining coordination in 2009, click on icon below.