Principle 5

The labour market in Europe underwent a huge deterioration in the first half of 2020, this was initiated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the measures taken to prevent the contagion. Workers with unstable, low-paid and/or part time jobs (including undocumented and undeclared workers) were the first to suffer the social consequences of the pandemic.

The dramatic expansion of non-standard and insecure work in recent decades is a direct result of a business model that shifts the risks from the employer onto the worker. Transitions toward open-ended contracts are limited because taxation and legislation create a negative economic bias against standard forms of employment. As a matter of fact, indicators show neither convergence nor improvement at EU level concerning the quality of work. It is time to introduce a set of indicators that measures the quality of jobs as a sub-section of the social scoreboard. When measuring job quality, a dashboard could check for the following elements: decent wages; work security via standard employment and access to social protection; lifelong learning opportunities; decent working conditions in safe and healthy workplaces; reasonable working hours with a good work-life balance; and trade union representation and bargaining rights (see also P4). In the context of the Covid-19 crisis, a trade-off between boosting the economic activity on the one hand and creating quality jobs on the other should be avoided at all times.

Platform workers have been delivering food and goods to the homes of those in quarantine or infected by the virus. The global pandemic has shown the need for non-standard workers to have the same legal protection similar to workers with regular legal contracts, with access to preventive health and safety, social protection and all other labour rights. While fully respecting national labour market models and the autonomy of national social partners and their right to conclude collective agreements, this will be carried out through initiatives aimed at establishing and ensuring a comprehensive set of rights for all workers, including undocumented, undeclared, non-standard and self-employed workers, so that insecure workers have more power to negotiate working conditions that cater to their needs.

The legislative framework should be improved and ensure the coordinated transposition of the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive (TPWCD). Such a concerted effort should reduce the amount of time needed for transposition through the use of interprofessional agreements of national social partners.

Steps towards reducing fragmentation of the labour market will come from implementation and monitoring implementation of the EU Recommendation on Access to Social Protection (see also P13). In particular, the Social Scoreboard will monitor discrimination based on employment status (at the moment, discrimination is identified based on age, gender and educational attainment).

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. EU Programme for Quality Employment: monitor effects of labour market segmentation and measure progress toward secure and adaptable employment, activation measures, and remove gaps based on occupational status.
2. Assessment of the national and EU acquis in light of new forms of work and prepare for the future of work: labour guarantee, protection against unfair dismissal, right to full-time employment, workers’ sovereignty over working time.

Principle 6

Data on wages and collective bargaining show that wage trends remain subdued and there is no upward convergence. This is predominantly due to:

• A failure in ensuring the respect for the right to collective bargaining and a growth in trader union busting practices have led to a reduced coverage of collective agreements.
• Statutory minimum wages which – where they exist – are in the majority of Member States set below a threshold of decency and do not guarantee a decent standard of living for workers and their families and do not provide for the involvement by social partners.
• Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) rules that impose excessive pressure on national systems and Troika programmes that destroyed collective bargaining.
• Too many workers not covered by collective agreements but only by personal contracts

Huge differences in wage levels and collective bargaining persist among and within Member States. This gives rise to a situation of social dumping that has predominantly negative effects on the lowest segment of the labour market. In addition, inappropriate and unfair wage-setting related to non-respect of collective bargaining rights, also has a negative impact on wages higher up the pay scale leading to a reduction in internal demand as the main driver of economic growth in the EU – in particular in a situation of economic crisis as currently caused by the COVID 19 pandemic.

It is therefore essential to ensure that workers’ rights to collective bargaining and fair remuneration are fully respected in all Member States. It is necessary to set a level playing field within the internal market and trigger an upward convergence in wages. The European Directive on adequate minimum wages plays a key role in this. This Directive needs to ensure that statutory minimum wages cannot fall below a threshold of decency and are adequate, and are defined with the full involvement of social partners. It furthermore needs to increase the capacity of trade unions to bargain for fair wages and working conditions and to tackles union busting practices and it must safeguard well-functioning collective bargaining and industrial relations systems.

Upward wage convergence in Europe would bridge the wage gaps between and within countries (particularly between East and West) and improve the wage share in the economy, reduce inequalities and enhance internal demand and productivity. This can be achieved through:

• The European Directive on adequte minimum wages must be amended to ensure the respect of trade unions’ right to collective bargaining, an end to trade union busting practices and a guarantee that statutory minimum wages increase;
• Ensuring that only employers that respect workers’ right to bargain collectively and implement the relevant collective agreements can be awarded public contracts, grants, funds, CAP payment, SURE, the Recovery Plan etc;
• Actions and measures that promote collective bargaining rights and capacity, including within the framework of economic and social governance tools, such as the European Semester, the Employment Guidelines, the EPSR and the Social Scoreboard.

An EU directive to address the gender pay gap and binding pay-transparency measures, including the clarification of the principle of equal pay for work of equal value enabling workers and trade unions to access information on criteria deciding pay levels and to bargain for work of equal value, is also needed in order to guarantee equal pay between men and women.

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. 1. National Action Plans, developed by Member States in consultation with the social partners, to promote collective bargaining, as part of a Framework Directive on collective bargaining and fair minimum wages.
2. In the EU Semester process: programme of pro-wage measures.

Principle 7

The European Semester has promoted reforms that relax or reduce worker protection as well as the laws on individual dismissals at national level (for example, capping severance payments in case of unfair dismissal or eliminating the reinstatement of a worker in his/her job in case of illegal dismissal, etc.). There is a positive correlation between these reforms and reduced access to collective bargaining.

The impact assessment of the proposal for a TPWCD provides evidence of all major challenges concerning this principle.

As stated above, the Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated even more that new forms of work need to be legally covered so that workers have access to the protection they need, and that platform workers are recognised as workers. Some measures are already part of this Action Plan, such as the announced legal instrument on a minimum wage and collective bargaining, access to social protection, reducing gender pay gaps or implementing the Recommendation on Access to Social Protection. Besides, the European Commission has announced an upcoming regulation on non-standard workers and workers in platform companies.

Technological, green and demographic transitions are changing the productive fabric of the EU, but workers are rarely protected against the adverse effects that these changes may have on their individual positions. The majority of Member States are not recording progress; more effective measures that ensure fairer transitions are needed to reinforce the collective and individual rights of workers involved in technological or green transitions. These could include:

• the right to receive vocational training, or validation of skills, for workers in employment;
• the right to receive an ALMP package during professional transitions;
• an obligation on the employer to negotiate transition plans to anticipate change and define strategies that safeguard employment levels and limit externalities and negative impacts on the supply chain.
• the right of trade unions to be informed and consulted in case of decisions that concern more than 5 people, in one or more countries, as well as the obligation to start negotiations with representative trade unions in case of decisions connected to technological or environmental transitions that affect the working position of more than 5 people.
• SME transition plans at a local level, covering a territory or a group of companies.

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. Assessment of national and EU acquis in light of new forms of work and prepare for the future of work, as in Principle 5.

Principle 8

Social dialogue is a prerequisite for decent work and fair wages, and it is a key principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights. In the context of the implementation of the action plan of the Pillar, the ETUC underlines that effective Social Dialogue requires social partners to have sufficient resources and expertise to negotiate and implement agreements. Capacity building support is key, and the recovery from the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis will require strong social partner organisations. Furthermore, the prerogatives of social dialogue must be preserved for both sides of industry, and that means that the Commission must prioritise social partner consultations over public consultations and must guarantee that trade unions are included as the representatives for the side of labour. Likewise, civil society dialogue must not be confused with social dialogue, civil society dialogue must be promoted but not in a manner that undermines trade unions or bipartite social dialogue. Social dialogue plays a central role in reinforcing social rights and enhancing sustainable and inclusive growth. European Social Partners have a role to play in pursuing and implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights, in accordance with their autonomy and prerogatives. Moreover, it is essential that the Action Plan supports the European Social Dialogue and its outcomes. European social partners can contribute to establishing minimum rights and reinforcing the social dimension of the single market through EU-level positions, joint analysis and, when desired, signing autonomous agreements also aimed at setting the establishment and the functioning of innovative EU tools and legislation. The role of Social Dialogue at early, interim and implementation stages of policy and legislative development must be developed into a predictable and guaranteed process and we need a guarantee of the prerogatives of the trade union as the social partner representing workers.

The ETUC Trade Union Involvement Index for the EU Semester shows that efforts aimed at establishing the right for social partners to be involved in the EU Semester are not delivering results. It especially concerns the national dimension of the European Semester. A European rule (possibly via a new Directive or via amendments to Regulation 1466/1997) could establish an obligation for national governments to consult social partners at the milestone of the Semester along with some quality criteria such as appropriate timing, appropriate level of dialogue, meaningful access to information and ensuring material and immaterial capacities of social partners.

Employee involvement in company decision-making processes is at risk due to corporate mobility within the Single Market. Evidence shows that corporate decisions are often taken to avoid employee involvement. For example, flaws in national laws transposing EU directives and, in particular, the recast EWC Directive, impede rights to information and consultation. Sanctions provided in national laws are rarely proportionate, effective and dissuasive. Information and consultation rights do not allow for the involvement and protection of workers. EU legislation should trigger upwards convergence in Europe.

Under principle 8, a case should be made for the right of workers (independently of the nature of their work contract) to bargain collectively. The right to collective bargaining is a fundamental right and recognised as such by the EU. The societal benefits collective agreements bring in terms of fairness, level-playing field and social progress such agreements covering non-standard workers and workers in platform companies (including the self-employed), should be considered to fall completely outside the scope of Article 101 TFEU and national competition rules. EU competition law and national competition rules must be interpreted in the light of fundamental rights, recognising the right to collective bargaining for all workers, atypical and platform workers (including the self-employed).

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. Invest in Social Dialogue to improve cross sector and sectoral social dialogue at European level to develop social partner capacities to negotiate and engage with their members, including in a digital environment.
2. Deliver clear, transparent and guaranteed rules, with the full involvement of the social partners, that can be relied upon when it comes to the actions the Commission will take to put forward social partner Agreements for adoption in binding forms
3. Respect the prerogatives of trade unions as the social partner representing workers
4. Support social partners for the implementation of autonomous framework agreements through dedicated funding linked to the agreements
5. Provide dedicated financial support for Social Partners to deal with the COVID-19 crisis so they can play their full role in the recovery.
6. Strengthen the right of workers to bargain collectively by ending union busting practices and through public procurement processes which only award contracts to companies that apply a collective agreement.
7. Increase resources in the MFF for training of worker representative bodies. Increase resources for initiatives to support the establishment and the correct functioning of EWCs and other transnational bodies for worker information and consultation.

Principle 9

As part of the larger fight against gender-based discrimination, work-life balance is one of the challenges of the century. While the position of women in the labour market is deteriorating, populist forces are turning a blind eye to the difficulty women face in the labour market and in society. Innovative solutions within and without the employment relationship may support households and increase equal opportunities among the working members of a family. SDG monitoring is particularly effective in identifying these gender-based disadvantages.

It is important to monitor the implementation of the Work-Life Balance Directive, provide guidance to social partners and encourage interprofessional agreements that reduce the time needed to transpose the directive. The “ETUC Toolkit on the implementation and transposition of the Work Life Balance Directive” – guidelines for ETUC affiliates – could be useful in this phase.

The experience of the Covid19 pandemic should encourage the investment in public care and social services in order to allow women to take more active part into the labour market. In addition, social partners should monitor that national legislations foresee flexible working arrangements and should be empowered to bargain in order to ensure that these are undertaken without any detrimental consequence on women’s’ careers or pay levels.

The EU Semester could investigate EU practices that fund work-life balance instruments (e.g. public means and collective bargaining measures) to trigger upward convergence. This Principle will be connected to innovation in labour laws such as working time sovereignty, childcare guarantees and fair transitions towards open-ended and full-time working contracts.

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. Exchange of EU practices to fund work-life balance instruments (public means and collective bargaining measures)
2. EU Semester should monitor:
(i) female participation in the labour market, and provide a breakdown for full-time/part-time employment; (ii) women and men not in work due to care responsibilities.
3. To develop and monitor links between public investment in education and training, activation policies and services, and women’s employment; use the gender equality index.
4. Support and encourage social partners to negotiate/conclude agreements implementing the WLB directive. Develop tools and training for collective agreement on measures related to work-life balance.

Principle 10

COVID-19 is the biggest health, economic and social challenge in the history of the European Union. The dimension of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) is a fundamental part of the European strategy for limiting the spread of the virus and for maintaining economic activities. Numerous national measures have been implemented to fight the spread of COVID-19, also including those appertaining to workplaces and commuting to work.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, workers in many sectors (most of them female workers) have continued being physically present at the workplace, at the frontline, fighting the virus, such as in healthcare, cleaning industry and retail. In the frame of a second wave of contagion, Governments have let aside lockdowns measures and established a controlled retake of work and access to the workplace. The success of the EU exit strategy will largely depend on putting forward effective OSH-appropriate policies.

Occupational safety and health measures, through legislation or collective agreements, offers practical support for returning to the workplace. Trade union involvement in developing such measures is key. Appropriate preventive measures by employers will help to achieve a safe and healthy return to the workplace, following the moderation of the containment measures, and in particular of physical distancing measures and availability of personal protective equipment. They also contribute to eradicating the transmission of COVID-19.

Actions aimed at establishing upward convergence in living and working conditions

1. Develop and pursue a strategy for zero tolerance of fatal accidents and the prevention of accidents at work. “Zero fatal accidents vision” in the forthcoming EU OSH strategy.
2. Mapping role of employee representatives and assessing effectiveness of trade union rights to ensure actual enforcement of EU legislation on H&S in the workplace.
3. Develop a uniform/single standard methodology and a common information system in the EU on: reporting occupational accidents, information on insurance systems for occupational accidents and diseases, and sharing of good practices.