Commenting on today’s European Commission Annual Growth Survey, Katja Lehto-Komulainen, Deputy General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said:
“It is too early for the EU to celebrate the end of the crisis. The fact is that total investment and total hours worked are still below pre-crisis levels. Too many new jobs are part-time, temporary or precarious and in-work poverty has not decreased.
“There is a need for fiscal space to boost investment – precisely in the areas that the Commission correctly identified to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights, to tackle poverty, improve skills, and reduce inequalities including the gender pay gap.
“We welcome Commissioner Thyssen acknowledging the long-term problem of wages no longer following productivity increases, and we look forward to economic recommendations next year that remove the obstacles to fair wage increases. In particular we expect action to enable sectoral collective bargaining in every member state.”
