MEPs want Member States to implement the directive on adequate minimum wages now, to help Europeans cope with inflation and the risk of poverty, and not in two years’ time, when the transposition period ends.
This was the message they sent on Wednesday 14 September when they approved by a very large majority, by 505 votes to 92 with 44 abstentions, the agreement reached with the EU Council last June and defended before them by Agnes Jongerius (S&D, Dutch) and Dennis Radtke (EPP, German) (see EUROPE 12937/7).
The two co-rapporteurs of the text, to which no amendments had been made, stressed the day before, during a debate on the subject, that this vote marks a crucial step, which “will be a game-changer in many countries”, including “in my country, where 50% of workers are covered by collective bargaining agreements”, explained the EPP MEP.
The directive provides that Member States will have a duty to promote collective bargaining and, for countries where collective bargaining coverage is below 80%, to establish an action plan to support it.
To guide governments, the directive also suggests that they set the legal minimum wage level according to reference values: 60% of the gross median wage or 50% of the gross average wage.
Member States will still have to check the adequacy of statutory minimum wages taking into account purchasing power and the cost of living, which could improve the situation of 25 million workers, who will see increases in the level of minimum wages. Trade union involvement will also be strengthened in the setting and updating of statutory minimum wages, although the text will not oblige those Member States that do not have this tool to introduce a statutory minimum wage.
“A new chapter of social policy will be opened”, added the German, while the directive will also strengthen the protection of the activities of trade unions.
“One in five employees earns just over the minimum wage” in the EU and “often they are women, young people, people with an immigrant background”, noted Agnes Jongerius. “In the health care sector, in distribution, they deserve our respect, we have to change the situation.”
Autumn will be hard “and people will have to choose between eating or heating”, she added.
“Let’s act now and not in two years”, Belgian Greens/EFA MEP Sara Mathieu also called for, as did her colleague Mounir Satouri (Greens/EFA, French), who welcomed a tool with a very concrete effect on payslips and which will help reduce in-work poverty.
“It’s time for the truth; it’s up to our good old Member States to act; they can do it now in the midst of the energy and food crisis.”
During the debate on Tuesday, several MEPs criticised the tool, including Sweden’s Sara Skytedall (EPP) who deplored the fact that the EU had “widened its scope of competence”. “It should respect subsidiarity”, said the MEP, who therefore did not support the text.
However, the six countries without minimum wages - Italy, Cyprus, Austria, Sweden, Denmark and Finland - will not be required to introduce them. And these states will continue to let collective agreements set this threshold, as the text does not call into question their organisation.
Minimum wages to fall sharply, say European trade unions
Europe’s lowest paid workers have seen the value of their wages fall by 19% this year, the biggest drop in real minimum wages this century, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) said on 13 September, based on Eurostat data.
Statutory minimum wages have risen by an average of 7.6% over the past year in the 21 EU countries that have them. But in these same countries, the inflation rate rose by an average of 12.4%, the ETUC said in a statement.
“This means that the real value of statutory minimum wages has fallen by an average of 4.8%.”
The most dramatic fall in real statutory minimum wages since last summer has been in Latvia (-19%), the Czech Republic and Estonia (-10%), and Slovakia (-8%).
Link to the adopted text: https://aeur.eu/f/328 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)