Providing migrants and refugees with fair access to the labour market is key to facilitating their integration into society and is essential to build both fair societies and a social Europe

“Providing migrants and refugees with fair access to the labour market is key to facilitating their integration into society and is essential to build both fair societies and a social Europe” said Luc Triangle, General Secretary. European trade unions have a special responsibility to ensure that refugees and migrants obtain fair conditions in the labour market. We must reject the division of an “A” and a “B” labour market with consequent lower wages, worsened working conditions and reduced social security access for the weakest workers. That kind of unfair situation would create a serious obstacle to the successful integration of refugees and migrants and could be abused by employers as an argument for undercutting existing minimum wages, wage floors and collective agreements in general. Read industriAll Europe’s position on ‘Call for a credible refugee strategy’

The ETUC is calling to ‘Stand up for undocumented workers’ to do more for undocumented migrant workers through a number of different means including: its ‘European Social Fund’ and ‘Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund’; the annual cycle of economic policy coordination; the forthcoming ‘Pillar of Social Rights’; Eurostat devising a way to collect figures on this hidden workforce; and the ‘EU Dialogue on Skills and Migration’ and the ‘European Migration Forum’. Read Union Migrant Net brochure on ‘Defending undocumented workers’. (LINK)