Responding to new Eurostat figures on employment, ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“Europe has a growing job quality crisis. Despite today’s figures showing a rising the employment rate, the total number of hours people work has most recently fallen.
“That points to an economy being built on poor quality and precarious work which doesn’t offer the hours, pay or conditions on which people can build a decent life.
“That is contributing to Europe’s labour shortages that President von der Leyen spoke about in her state of the Union speech this week.
“The evidence shows that those sectors hit hardest by shortages pay the lowest wages and offer the worst conditions.
“The Commission should help make Europe a better place to work by making collective bargaining, preferably at sector-wide level, a prerequisite for public funding. That is the way to ensure people can negotiate for secure hours and incomes."
