From 5 to 7 July 2023 took place in Sofia / Bulgaria a seminar about “Stop waiting for the next crisis: decent working conditions and fair wages now!”, organised by PODKREPA CL (Confederation of Labour PODKREPA) in cooperation with EZA and funded by the European Union.
The seminar’s objective were:
1.To explore new ideas and trade unions vision on how, in a time of multiple crisis to support national policies for real pay increases, including reaching the living wage level, and an upward convergence in incomes and working conditions across the EU.
2.To stimulate the debate on the nexus between decent work and recovery in a trade union perspective, seeking to manage technological and other workplace changes with strong trade union involvement.
3.Identify capacity building needs to provide for strongest trade unions, able to negotiate tangible outcomes for working people.
Description of the seminar
- The event started with welcome addresses and political interventions with focus on measures enabling quality of life and work, rather than merely securing economic subsistence of workers and their families. Furthermore, speakers have stressed that decent wages must be complemented by decent employment and working conditions to allow for work-life balance and professional development.
- The first political session continued with an expert’s presentation on the current European and national policies to address the key social challenges caused by the inflation and the cost-of-living crisis.
- Presentation, made during the second session have add two more topics:
- Trade unions in action – the possible solutions to stop the decrease of living standards and to secure workers’ rights;
- On the way to a fair green transition: what is the role of the Transport sector?
- Experts’ inputs were followed by national interventions on social dialogue and collective bargaining to improve living and working conditions and to adapt to the changing world of work.
- Second day started with think-tank session “Solve today’s problem with the future in mind” - less wage inequality and adequate prevention of workplace discrimination consisted of two keynote statements and questions/answers.
- The event finished by a Conclusive round table: the necessary steps towards positive change in trade unions with three experts’ interventions on the topic and general discussion.
- Closing session for conclusion and evaluation of the seminar.
Key ideas
- We are living in a very fragile world with a war in the heart of Europe, combined with an energy and cost of living crisis. Uncertainty and interconnected crises are profoundly affecting EU ‘s societies, and work in all its facets. Austerity seems to be coming back - lowest paid workers have seen the value of their wages to drop down by up to 19 per cent in 2022, representing the biggest fall in real minimum wages this century. Statutory minimum wages rose by an average of 7,6% in most of the EU countries. At the same time the rate of inflation has increase by an average of 12,4%, while the value of payouts to shareholders increased by 28.6%- more than seven times faster than the rate at which wages are rising. Practically, the real value and the purchasing power of statutory minimum wages in the EU has fallen by an average of 4,8%, leaving large number of workers struggling to afford the most basic costs of living like food, rent and energy. Similar is the situation in Bulgaria - nominal minimum wage growth is 9,9 %, the rate of Inflation 14,8 %, which means - 4,9 in purchasing power;
- Above-described negative trends have been not properly addressed by both - the European and national institutions. In time of persistent uncertainty, implemented policies and measures, to ease the impact of inflation, were not efficient enough for two main reasons. First - workers’ rights violations are continuing to increase – meaning lower wages and worse conditions. Second – existing social gaps are continuing to deepening, which practically means that in the longer-term present policies may only drive more inequality within the EU. Instead of blaming workers who can’t afford to put food on the table or petrol in their cars to get to work, national governments should focus on a credible solution for sustainable growth and rising living standards. In that direction are the main proposals of trade unions - because no emergency policy or measure triggered under those inter-connected crises should be used to undermine or circumvent workers’ ‘rights. For trade unions social dialogue and collective bargaining are and must remain the fundamental element of the EU economy and social partners must be part of every solution to any crisis;
- The massive drop in real incomes does not permits to working people to live in dignity. Poor working conditions, excessive workloads, high levels of workplace stress, low income, and job insecurity have a detrimental effect on workers, with low paid workers and vulnerable hit the hardest. Thus, our core trade union demand is all those burdens to be shared in a socially just way – or give to workers a fair share of higher profits and productivity. This means implement targeted policies and priority actions to increase wages, pensions and income support.
- Only decent income’s level may provide for improvement of living standards – in that respect, every economic activity must place working people at its center. Putting employees’ interests and working conditions at the center is a triple win situation just because:
- it benefits workers, because they salaries and living standards will improve;
- this directly supports the State ‘s finances and policies via more taxes, paid to the budget;
- it acts in favor of employers, as they enjoy from a more qualified workforce;
- In practice, there is no way to have qualified workforce and at the same time those workers to receive low wages. Overfocus on skills mismatch is a mistake. Employers do not lack skilled workers, they failed to offer quality jobs. The so-called mismatch is often more linked to bad working conditions - low wages, precarious contracts, disrespect, working time, lack of employee training & career development. In addition, employers cannot insist that workers continuously acquire new professional skills, but it must be carried out gradually and according to the need of the different categories of work;
- National governments are repeatedly reasserted their desire to deliver a high wage, high skill economy. If this is really the case, they must give workers stronger rights and encouraging employers to invest in skills and build a world-class workforce fit for the future. With the world of work rapidly transforming, experts predict nine in ten workers will need to retrain or upskill by 2030 to gain the necessary skills to stay in employment. It is time for change. A new right to paid time off to train would clear many of the barriers to training faced by workers. This new right should be part of a wider package of measures to help workers as the economy and society undergo transformational change, including the move to net zero and digitalization;
- Regarding the gender equality, the representation and leadership of women in politics is growing, but there is a lack of systematic commitment of political parties - if the topic of is present in their programs, it is in the context of demography. Second, there is a lack of capacity to implement gender equality policies at the workplace. The proposal and measure, made by trade unions are limited by missing indicators - there is a lack of research, statistics, registers with case studies on the subject, based on which adequate measures can be taken;
- Trade unions must find new energy to empower workers interest and improve working and living conditions. Trade union renewal is long overdue as collective bargaining and collective action rely on strong, active, and independent workers’ organizations that unify and amplify the voice of workers. To do that, trade unions must identify emerging trends in the labour market and ways to organize and mobilize atypical workers and minority groups. Here, regular, and direct contacts at the workplace are essential, as well as more visibility and mobilization at national and regional level;
Conclusions and recommendations
- Europe has long considered itself a bastion of democracy and workers’ rights. But, cost of living crisis and the spiraling inflation driven by corporate greed had hit working people even more than the global pandemic does. In support of working people, trade unions are demanding a new social contract based on decent jobs, just wages, social protection, fundamental rights — including safe and secure work, equality and inclusion. That is a call to restore democracy, equality and decency in the EU.
- The opinion of workers organization is that the EU and national governments must do more to address the present situation with a higher level of ambition and solidarity. In that sense the trade union proposal is to learn from past mistakes and to shift the focus by prioritizing the wellbeing of ordinary people - namely: investing in workers, valuing their contributions, ensuring the attractiveness of work. Doing that, the EU will lead the way in building a just and equitable society.
- Working people must be listened to and they must be at the center of future decisions. To articulate and advance this, trade unions, employers and governments must shape a balanced sharing of the cost-of-living crisis, complemented by policy reforms that allow a redistribution from profits to wages;
- TUs have to be more active and to start to carefully monitor the impact of national budgets' spendings in terms of quality jobs creation. Similar approach will reinforce social protection systems, avoid austerity driven reforms, boosting wage and social upward convergence in the EU. At the same time, such a regular monitoring will oppose to the fraudulent business models based on flexibilization, short-termism, and abuse of workers’ rights. – all cases when the official mechanisms for control are powerless;
- Digitalization and AI will continue to transform the world of work. Trade unions must build the necessary digital infrastructure and tools to come into contact and to support workers. This infrastructure would provide possibilities to recruit, retain and engage members, to mobilize workers, to improve laws and collective bargaining. Digital tools will guarantee the possibility to consult and exchange on collective agreement clauses and will engage members to share and spread information, positions, and campaigns;
- The EU must learn the lessons of previous crises and avoid mistakes such as freezing pay, undermining collective bargaining, raising interest rates, or returning to the failed austerity agenda. Trade unions have a vital role to play in the design and implementation of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and must be included in decision-making. It means a robust social dialogue which involves trade unions fully—at national, sectoral and company level - in managing change and developing negotiated, fair and tailor-made solutions. This is key to ensuring that a wealthy few cannot continue to extract record profits at the expense of working people. It is time now to act. With a convergence of crises from the pandemic, climate change and cost of living, only workers’ collective say at work can be the driver of social, political, and economic change.