A seminar about ”Precarious Work” took place between May 25th and 28th 2023 in Băile Felix / Romania, organised by CSDR / Departamentul Educare - Formare al CSDR (Confederaţia Sindicatelor Democratice din România / Departamentul Educare - Formare al Confederaţiei Sindicatelor Democratice din România), in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union.
The seminar was organized in hybrid form with both online and in-person attendance. 40 representatives of workers’ organisations from Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Spain, Portugal, Slovakia, Czech Republic and North Macedonia participated in the seminar.
Important aspects highlighted in this seminar:
-Regardless of the type and length of labour relations, workers are entitled to a fair and equal treatment as regards work conditions, access to social protection and training;
-Transition towards permanent jobs must be encouraged;
-The law should provide the flexibility for employers to adapt fast to the changes of the economic environment, in accordance with the law and collective bargaining agreements;
-Innovative work forms which provide quality labour conditions must be promoted;
-Entrepreneurship and independent activities must be encouraged;
-Occupational mobility must be facilitated;
-Work relations which result in precarious work conditions must be prevented, including by forbidding the use of atypical contracts;
-Any trial period should be reasonable in length.
The findings of the seminar
-The impact of legal regulations of labour relations, social protection and the labour market can be decisive in fighting precarious work;
-Precarious work generates social exclusion, instability and inequities;
-Precarious work represents a phenomenon which generates unemployment and poverty;
-We need a common approach across the European Union to fight and limit precarious work;
-Trade unions must focus their attention on categories of workers exposed to precarious work;
-The position of the trade union movement, in fighting precarious work, is expressed in requesting the existence and construction of a European framework which should provide for the importance of creating active tools to fight precarious work.