Social Europe

politics, economy and employment & labour

  • Themes
    • European digital sphere
    • Recovery and resilience
  • Publications
    • Books
    • Dossiers
    • Occasional Papers
    • Research Essays
    • Brexit Paper Series
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Newsletter

Trade unions are key to a safe exit from the pandemic

Luca Visentini 12th May 2020

There can be no return to ‘business as usual’ after the crisis: the ‘new normal’ must entail a profound political and social transformation.

trade unions, new normal
Luca Visentini

The coronavirus has created an unprecedented health emergency in Europe, threatening the very foundation of European unity. While saving lives is rightly the priority, an economic whirlwind is coming down the tracks.

Across the European Union, trade unions have had to step in to do their utmost to protect workers and their families. As EU governments start to reopen their economies, workers must know they are safe in their places of work. Economic recovery is crucial, but there can be no reckless rush back to work (for those who have work to return to), putting the lives of working people and their loved ones at risk.

Millions jobless

Many people are talking about a ‘new normal’ after the pandemic, circumscribed by social distancing and long-term protective measures. But this new normal must take the form of a profound transformation of political and social priorities. There can be no return to ‘business as usual’, in a Europe where millions of workers are jobless.

The latest research by the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions reveals that 28 per cent of Europeans have lost their jobs permanently or temporarily since the crisis, almost 50 per cent say their working hours have decreased and 15 per cent believe they are likely to lose their jobs within the next three months. Over one in five is finding it difficult to make ends meet, and 27 per cent say they have no savings to rely on.

Our job is keeping you informed!


Subscribe to our free newsletter and stay up to date with the latest Social Europe content.


We will never send you spam and you can unsubscribe anytime.

Thank you!

Please check your inbox and click on the link in the confirmation email to complete your newsletter subscription.

.

If people cannot get back to work in the near future, unemployment will soar above the peak occasioned by the 2008 financial crisis, sparking a worse depression than in the 1930s. The new normal must be the moment for governments to prioritise social wellbeing and, finally, to take seriously the threat to our planet—to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, to invest in green technologies, to find new, less-polluting means of transport and to provide clean air.

Recovery plan

We need the biggest recovery plan since the end of World War II. It must deliver a fair deal for all working people. It must ensure that multinational companies and rich individuals pay their fair share of taxation, to fund public services and public-service workers. It must help to deliver the United Nations’ Paris agreement as well as the Sustainable Development Goals.

It has to mobilise massive investment of fresh public money in the renewal of industry and environmentally and socially sustainable economic activities, as well as strengthening welfare systems and social protection. All this cannot happen by putting the burden once more on national public budgets, through loans with tough conditions attached, but on the contrary by finally building a real economic and fiscal capacity for the EU to invest in a future where nobody is left behind.

Covid-19 has revealed who are the really important workers in society: nurses and carers, transport staff, teachers, cleaners, agricultural labourers and many others who have been undervalued and underpaid for so long. One outcome of this crisis should be that such essential workers (who have risked their lives working through the pandemic) finally get the recognition and reward—better pay and working conditions—they deserve.

Precarious workforce

The virus has highlighted the vulnerability of Europe’s growing precarious workforce: platform and temporary workers, freelances and self-employed. It should not take a global pandemic to confirm that these workers must have the same protection as others. Self-isolation is an unrealistic demand for workers on digital-labour platforms, including drivers and delivery riders, and they cannot afford to take sick leave for fear of losing their incomes.


We need your support


Social Europe is an independent publisher and we believe in freely available content. For this model to be sustainable, however, we depend on the solidarity of our readers. Become a Social Europe member for less than 5 Euro per month and help us produce more articles, podcasts and videos. Thank you very much for your support!

Become a Social Europe Member

As governments and employers adapt to the lessons the pandemic has taught, these workers should in future have social protection and support in case of illness. The EU and its member states must guarantee that atypical workers will keep their jobs, their incomes and their labour rights. We see this crisis as a much-needed opportunity to achieve better conditions for non-standard workers.

Europe needs to reform its supply chains, which have been unable to respond adequately to the demands of the pandemic. Making our supply chains more sustainable, economically,  environmentally and socially—seeing how we can relocate some essential production to the EU single market and building a level playing-field of tax and social justice—is a priority for the future. Covid-19 must not be an excuse to attack human and social rights, as has been the case in some member states.

Accelerated efforts

Across Europe, at local, national and EU levels, unions have accelerated their efforts to support all workers—employed or unemployed, redundant, self-employed, migrant or in precarious jobs. Everyone needs to get to work safely: those who have lost their jobs, those who have been suspended from work and those who were jobless before the pandemic struck.

No one should face sanctions for refusing to work in a risky environment. Workers have the right to withdraw from or refuse to return to an unsafe workplace, with guaranteed legal protection from dismissal or any other penalty.

Already working people are suffering because very little money has been paid out by national governments’ emergency measures aimed at enabling workers to sustain their families and keep their jobs. In Italy, for example, out of 10 million workers eligible for income benefits, only 1.5 million have received payment. Banking systems are blocking the support triggered by the European Central Bank, denying credit to companies and households in need.

People are going without food, and companies are going bankrupt, destroying millions of jobs. This situation will deteriorate if Europe enters a deep and long recession.

So emergency measures must be implemented urgently, in co-operation with the social partners, while ambitious recovery strategies are put in place by the EU and member states. Tens of millions of workers await support from the SURE short-time-work support scheme. Aid is needed now and must be available beyond the emergency to protect employment during the recovery.

Permanent instruments

Raising the EU budget up to 2 per cent of European gross domestic product goes in the right direction. But If European support is required beyond 2022, this will need securely funded EU tools. Political leaders have to set their national interests aside and design permanent instruments to stabilise the EU’s capacity to invest and to protect its citizens from unemployment, poverty and social exclusion.

Europe has suffered from a decade of austerity and cuts, with business interests and profits coming before protection of people and environmental and social justice. It is high time to change this short-sighted approach and build a future of prosperity and solidarity for all.

European democracy was put at risk by the financial crisis and austerity—and it may be destroyed altogether if the EU does not respond differently to the pandemic. The battle is not yet won, and today’s decisions will determine the Europe we live in for many years to come.

This column is sponsored by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Luca Visentini

Luca Visentini is general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

Home ・ Politics ・ Trade unions are key to a safe exit from the pandemic

Most Popular Posts

Boris Johnson, Brexit, Conservative,conservatism Boris Johnson: blustering onPaul Mason
deglobalisation,deglobalization,Davos Getting deglobalisation rightJoseph Stiglitz
schools,Sweden,Swedish,voucher,choice Sweden’s schools: Milton Friedman’s wet dreamLisa Pelling
world order,Russia,China,Europe,United States,US The coming world orderMarc Saxer
south working,remote work ‘South working’: the future of remote workAntonio Aloisi and Luisa Corazza

Most Recent Posts

public services,public service,women,public service workers Public services should not be the victims of inflationIrene Ovonji-Odida
gdp,gross domestic product Let’s count what really mattersJayati Ghosh
green transition,just transition,fossil fuel,energy transition,Ukraine,Russia Ukraine and the geopolitics of the energy transitionBéla Galgóczi and Paolo Tomassetti
energy,efficiency,generation,solar,price,inflation From subsidising energy to reducing dependenceHans Dubois
SPO,Rendi-Wagner,Austria,social democratic,social democrat,social democracy A social-democratic decade ahead?Robert Misik

Other Social Europe Publications

National recovery and resilience plans
The transatlantic relationship
Women and the coronavirus crisis
RE No. 12: Why No Economic Democracy in Sweden?
US election 2020

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

Towards a new Minimum Wage Policy in Germany and Europe: WSI minimum wage report 2022

The past year has seen a much higher political profile for the issue of minimum wages, not only in Germany, which has seen fresh initiatives to tackle low pay, but also in those many other countries in Europe that have embarked on substantial and sustained increases in statutory minimum wages. One key benchmark in determining what should count as an adequate minimum wage is the threshold of 60 per cent of the median wage, a ratio that has also played a role in the European Commission's proposals for an EU-level policy on minimum wages. This year's WSI Minimum Wage Report highlights the feasibility of achieving minimum wages that meet this criterion, given the political will. And with an increase to 12 euro per hour planned for autumn 2022, Germany might now find itself promoted from laggard to minimum-wage trailblazer.


FREE DOWNLOAD

ETUI advertisement

ETUI/ETUC conference: A Blueprint for Equality

Join us at the three-day hybrid conference ‘A blueprint for equality’ (22-24 June).

The case against inequality has already been strongly articulated. Inequality is not just incidental to a particular crisis but a structural problem created by an economic model. Now is the time to explore what real equality should look like.

As a media partner of this event, Social Europe is delighted to invite you to this three-day conference, organised by the ETUI and ETUC. More than 90 speakers from the academic world, international organisations, trade unions and NGOs will participate, including the economist Thomas Piketty and the European commissioner Nicolas Schmit.


MORE INFOMATION HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Minimum wages in 2022: annual review

Nominal minimum wage rates rose significantly in 2022, compared with 2021. In 20 of the 21 European Union member states with statutory minimum wages, rates increased. When inflation is taken into account, however, the minimum wage increased in real terms in only six member states. If current inflation trends continue, minimum wages will barely grow at all in real terms in any country in 2022.


AVAILABLE HERE

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

EU Care Atlas: a new interactive data map showing how care deficits affect the gender earnings gap in the EU

Browse through the EU Care Atlas, a new interactive data map to help uncover what the statistics are often hiding: how care deficits directly feed into the gender earnings gap.

While attention is often focused on the gender pay gap (13%), the EU Care Atlas brings to light the more worrisome and complex picture of women’s economic inequalities. The pay gap is just one of three main elements that explain the overall earnings gap, which is estimated at 36.7%. The EU Care Atlas illustrates the urgent need to look beyond the pay gap and understand the interplay between the overall earnings gap and care imbalances.


BROWSE THROUGH THE MAP

About Social Europe

Our Mission

Article Submission

Membership

Advertisements

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641

Social Europe Archives

Search Social Europe

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Follow us on social media

Follow us on Facebook

Follow us on Twitter

Follow us on LinkedIn

Follow us on YouTube