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

Responding to the European Commission's European Semester Winter Package, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “The Commission recognises that wage inequalities are increasing and life is getting tougher for low-wage workers, underlining the urgent need for higher statutory minimum wages where they exist and measures to promote collective bargaining in every member state. 

The ETUC today staged a protest with a difference outside the European Commission headquarters as a cast of street performers visualised the struggle for equal pay.  A wire walker crossed a rope suspended 2 metres in the air to symbolise the difficult journey between the gender pay gap and equal pay, while musicians led chants including “get up stand up, stand up for equal pay.”

Just one fifth of adverts on Brussels’ biggest job websites are transparent over pay, a trend that is contributing to Europe’s 16% gender pay gap. The ETUC analysed 100 job adverts on the Eurobrussels and Euractiv job websites in the first part of February and found just 19 of them gave details of a pay grade or pay range. Most gave no details of what remuneration candidates could expect, while others stated that they offer a “competitive” package based on experience.

The ETUC strongly condemns the appalling racist crime committed in Hanau, Germany. We express our sincere condolences to the families and we reiterate support to our colleagues. More than ever, across Europe the fight against far right and racist crimes and violence must be united and determined.

At least 3.3 million fewer workers are benefiting from a collective bargaining agreement across the European Union today compared to the beginning of the century, the latest figures show. Collective bargaining coverage is down in 22 of the EU’s 27 member states since 2000 as a result of deliberate policies implemented by member states and endorsed by the European Commission, often because of a mistaken idea that high levels of collective bargaining are bad for the economy.

Commenting on the launch of the European Commission’s strategies for digital and AI, ETUC confederal secretary Isabelle Schömann said: "The introduction of AI in the workplace must be done in an ethical and legal way that protects workers from disproportionate and illegal surveillance or discriminatory treatment because of biased algorithms. That’s why trade unions welcome commitments in the strategy to ensure there are the safeguards on privacy and safety needed to make AI technologies fit for the workplace.

Productivity increased more than wages* in a majority of EU member states.

The European Commission announced today a partial withdrawal of trade concessions to Cambodia under its preferential trade arrangement, Everything But Arms (EBA). The decision came after a long period of ‘enhanced dialogue’ initiated by the EU in order to pressure the Cambodian government to stop persecuting opposition leaders and to roll back other authoritarian measures. 

Workers in two thirds of EU member states are receiving a smaller share of their country’s GDP than they were at the beginning of the decade, official figures show. European Commission statistics show wage share – a key indicator of inequality - has fallen in 18 member states between 2010 and 2019. Ireland saw the biggest fall in the percentage of GDP paid out in wages at 19%*, ahead of Croatia (11), Cyprus (6), Portugal (5) and Malta (5).  

Responding to the European Commission’s review of economic governance, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said: “Trade unions welcome this review of economic governance as an opportunity to draw a line under a decade of harmful austerity and begin a positive programme of investment and upward convergence of working and living conditions that will make Europe fairer for working people by delivering sustainable growth,  social cohesion and a socially just transition to a green economy. 

The ETUC welcomes the European Commission’s commitment to continuing and reinforcing the enlargement process but regrets the lack of clear focus on social objectives in the enlargement process

The pay packets* of workers in 6 EU countries is lower on average than ten years ago. In a further 3 EU countries wages have been almost frozen over the last decade.     New figures by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI)** show that average pay packets in Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Croatia and Cyprus were lower in 2019 than in 2010.   Average pay packets, adjusted for inflation (and including social security contributions and pay benefits), went down 2010-19 by: 15% in Greece