Speaking to the press on Wednesday 15 January, Esther Lynch, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), outlined her expectations of the new Commission’s work programme and called for ambitious initiatives on the ‘Competitiveness Compass’ (due on 29 January), the ‘Roadmap for Quality Jobs’ and the ‘Union for Skills’, which the Commission is due to present on 5 March, according to its latest public timetable.
“For us, this year is all about jobs and, more importantly, quality jobs [...] We’re asking quality jobs to be one of the cardinal points on the competitiveness compass. Because without quality jobs, you, Europe is not going to be competitive”, said the ETUC leader straight off the bat.
She defines these quality jobs as “collective bargaining, fair pay, job security, the chance to get ahead, the fact that you’d be promoted on merit rather than favouritism, health and safety at work, work life balance and other equality objectives as well. And also progression and the chance to succeed”.
The General Secretary hopes that the ‘competitiveness compass’ will include strong commitments to quality jobs. She also hopes that the ‘Skills Union’ will make it possible in practical terms to release funds and (paid) time for workers so that they can train, otherwise it will become an empty shell.
But she also deplored the fact that “ the big piece that’s missing in the last five years has been the investment in innovation and investment in people” to prepare for the various transitions in the world of work. “We know that investment is down, we know that dividends are up. So it’s very clear that companies made choices”, she commented.
She also expressed her concern at the view being spread among European companies that standards are an obstacle to competitiveness.
“And it’s particularly worrying, in particular the role that [Elon] Musk will play given his declared objection to the European model [...]”, she added.
Minimum wages. Asked about the opinion of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the directive on adequate minimum wages (see EUROPE 13557/22), delivered on 14 January, Esther Lynch deplored the message implicit in these conclusions and “the idea that the whole world will succeed by getting involved in intense competition not only between member states, but also between working people”.
“But what’s most worrying for me is the idea that it would be desirable under the EU treaty that member states would compete not on being the best or on innovation, but that they would compete on that bottom, which is to compete with each other on having” a lower minimum wage.
The head of the ETUC considers this idea “entirely inconsistent with an interpretation of the EU treaty that says that there must be the continuous improvement in living and working conditions”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)