What is a quality job? Can the EU be satisfied with an increase in employment rates without asking whether these jobs actually enable the people who have them to meet their daily needs and desires?
Over the course of two days, almost 200 people examined the issue in Porto, at a Social Forum designed to perpetuate the spirit of 2021 and the European Leaders’ Summit, which set new social objectives for the EU.
Dedicated to quality jobs ‘in a competitive social Europe’, at a time when the European Commission will be presenting a communication at the end of 2025 and legislation in 2026, the Forum brought together the Prime Minister and Minister for Labour of Portugal, Luís Montenegro and Rosário Palma Ramalho, as well as the President of the European Council, António Costa, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Roxana Mînzatu, national ministers and European social partners.
It did not result in a ‘Porto Declaration’, as had been originally envisaged, but it did result in conclusions from the Portuguese government that should be presented to the other Member States. The cause of this was a lack of time (for example, the European Parliament’s Employment Committee did not wish to sign a document that it was unable to amend) and a lack of agreement between social partners on the language to be included.
However, the draft conclusions remain open-ended and subject to amendment, according to various players.
Even without a statement, the majority of participants did agree on one point: a fair income, well-being, personal development and motivation are key elements of a ‘good job’. And if the target set in 2021 of achieving an employment rate of at least 78% by 2030 is to be satisfactory, we need to ensure that this is very much about good jobs, given that poverty affects 8% of workers in the EU.
For young people, who were represented in Porto by Rareș Voicu, quality jobs are all the more essential “as our generation no longer believes it will have a better life than previous generations”. We must also reject the inevitability of “unpaid internships”.
For Rosário Palma Ramalho, the quality of a job can be measured by whether the income is sufficient, good living and working conditions, and access to training and skills development at a time when artificial intelligence tools “are moving faster than we are”. A good work/life balance and gender equality are other criteria.
The European Parliament and its Employment and Social Affairs Committee – represented in Oporto by Estelle Ceulemans – are also focusing on mental health and well-being at work, and want new binding tools.
Simplifier. For European employers, however, the logic is reversed. For them, it is greater levels of competitiveness that can create quality jobs. The EU’s social policy must therefore focus “on actions that contribute to improving competitiveness, since this is the basis for creating quality jobs”, emphasised Thérèse de Liedekerke, Deputy Director General of BusinessEurope.
On Friday, Maxime Cerutti, who is in charge of social affairs for the employers’ lobby, also set out his expectations regarding the ‘Roadmap’.
While the continuous acquisition and development of skills, adult education and investments in training form the basis for quality employment, businesses also need to be supported by means of simplifying legislation.
The Act should therefore contain “concrete initiatives on the ‘Pay Transparency’ and ‘Platform Work’ directives”.
A fourth target? The Forum also focused on the possibility of the EU adopting a new target on quality jobs.
Roxana Mînzatu did not rule out the possibility of a measure, but stressed how complex it was to decide upon a definition, since it varies from sector to sector.
“Labour shortages can be linked to poor working conditions, and not wages or lack of opportunities”.
She is insisting on employment policies that can make a real difference to people’s daily lives and reconnect them with the EU; in the same way as other participants have also emphasised, there are concerns about the democratic repercussions of an impoverished Europe.
“A Europe built on low wages, precarious jobs, and deep inequalities is weaker, more divided, and more vulnerable”, said Esther Lynch, of the European Trade Union Confederation.
In the meantime, Ms Mînzatu has already asked employers whether they have “a better solution, or do you think we should keep the pay gap between men and women forever”.
We must remain “committed to the idea that a fair labour market needs equal pay”, she told Agence Europe on Thursday 18 September. “We can look at where we can better enforce what we have or how we can use digitalisation”. But where there are gaps in protection, “we need to act and we need to stand firm supporting the tools that we've already put in place”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)