On 16 April, a trade union delegation, coordinated by the ETUC, participated in a social partner exchange of views with Commission Vice-President Minzatu.
During the meeting with Commission Vice president Minzatu, trade unions highlighted the urgent need for immediate measures to ensure quality jobs and uphold Europe's social model.
Quality jobs are fundamental to social justice, economic resilience, and democratic legitimacy.
However, the ETUC warned that without swift and decisive measures, precarious work, low pay, and weak protections will continue to undermine these goals.
The ETUC called for the European Commission to lead with bold legislative initiatives and real investment, to ensure quality jobs in every sector and region.
Quality jobs must include at the very least:
- Collective bargaining
- Full respect for workers and trade union rights
- Fair wages
- Work security and social protection
- Training without costs and during working time
- Good working conditions
- Health and safety at the workplace
- Work-life balance
- Equality and non-discrimination
IndustriAll Europe stressed that responding to the social urgency is essential to deliver on quality jobs.
Isabelle Barthès, Deputy General Secretary of industriAll Europe, said: "Industrial workers are more and more anxious about their future. Further to the challenges of the green and digital transformation, they now face an industrial crisis and a trade war which are likely to have a massive impact on their jobs. They are already experiencing daily restructuring, sites closures, delayed investments and stalled demand. Workers need to be protected. The EU and national governments have to provide them with social stability and security. "We welcome the proposed change to the EGF which was swiftly put forward by the EU Commission, but it is only starting to address the needed emergency architecture.
"We need firefighting actions to protect workers and European companies now – through a worker safeguard measure like SURE in the pandemic with social strings attached. Responding to the social urgency is essential to deliver on quality jobs. We also need to ensure just transition so that transitions are not seen as a threat. Workers have to be empowered so that they can make the best of these transitions. This is why we need a legal tool to ensure the effective anticipation and management of employment and skills. This requires strengthening collective bargaining, information and consultation’ rights and nestablishing a right to training to ensure job-to-job transitions. Transitions must go hand in hand with quality jobs. Otherwise, we will face a social backlash. Anxiety is already very visible. This is why we urgently need a legal tool to ensure a smooth transition."
