New position on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights

The position, which forms the basis for a response to a consultation on the subject matter by the European Commission, puts forward the following issues to make Europe better for workers and their families:

• Strengthening social dialogue and trade union pluralism. A renewed Action Plan must ensure that all workers have a strong voice in shaping the future of work, regardless of the trade union they are affiliated to. A genuine strengthening of social dialogue requires balanced participation of all representative unions at bothEU and national level. The role of social partners must be reinforced inpractice to this end.
• Ensuring fair wages and decent working conditions, in particular through a ful land effective implementation of the EU Minimum Wage Directive 2022/2041, EU Pay Transparency Directive 2023/970 and EU Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive 2019/1152.
• Tackling precarious employment and abusive practices, through revised Directives on Fixed-Term, Part-Time, and Temporary Agency Work to close gaps that permit discrimination vis-à-vis permanent employees, a ban on unpaid and exploitative traineeships,ensuring that at least all post-curriculum traineeships are fairly remunerated, and binding social clauses in EU public procurement and state aid rules ensuring public funds only benefit companies that respect workers’ rights, apply collective agreements and guarantee minimum wages.
• Managing the digital and green transitions responsibly, through adedicated EU Directive on a Right to Disconnect and a Directive on Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Work.
• Promoting public services as a cornerstone of social and economic resilience,through adequate investments in public service jobs and working conditions across education, health care, justice, post and telecoms, defence and overall public administrations to attract qualified staff and enable it to perform well.
• Fostering training and lifelong learning, by stepping up measures to reduce school dropouts and strengthen apprenticeships and vocational education and training (VET) and supporting a right to lifelong learning, with frameworks that allow workers to adapt their skills and remain employable throughout changing career trajectories.
• Combating violence, discrimination and inequality at work, a through a full transposition and enforcement of the EU Directive on Combating Violence against Women 2024/1385 and new measures against third-party violence in public-facing professions, particularly in health care, education, law enforcement and public administrations.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: "For CESI it remains a priority to bring the Pillar closer to national legal systems, national social dialogues and national trade unions and employer organisations. As a set of principles that are not directly enforceable and which to a considerable extent span to subject matters that are outside the scope of EU competence, it is vital that the EU and national levelpolitical agendas actively refer to the principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights as a basis for (and to strengthen) their collective bargaining power. EU and national level social partners must use the Pillar of Social Rights as a reference compass for their activities and claims, not least when negotiating new collective agreements. EU promises must be turned into real tools for workers, otherwise there is a risk that it will not meet the expectations that citizens and workers have placed in it."

CESI's full position can be accessed here.