CESI Summer Days 2025: A New Quality Jobs Roadmap for Europe

Klaus Heeger talks with MEP José Gusmão, Vice-chair of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament and member of GUE/NGL, on the coronavirus economic recovery, employment and social policies of the Union, the rule of law mechanism, and precarious work and in-work poverty.

Are the new MFF and Recovery and Resilience Facility up to the task? What to expect from the upcoming Portuguese presidency of the European Council? What about the new proposal for a EU directive on adequate minimum wages?

Watch here the interview to find out.

Ending gender-based violence is reflected in several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, mainly number 5, hence the significance of dedicating this day to raise awareness and to call for action to end violence against women and girls. This violence can take many forms and is felt throughout women’s lives.

As millions were closed in their homes to protect themselves during the current Corona pandemic, too many victims experienced that being closed at home with their abuser was perhaps a worse perspective than getting ill.

Domestic violence not only rose, it exploded during lockdown: potential unemployment, closed spaces in small apartments, uncertainties about the future and mental problems, are probably reasons for increased stress and hence violence levels. Thus, this year is particularly important and urgent to fight violence against women and girls. In France, according to the French interior ministry, the number of femicides in 2019 already rose by one fifth in comparison to 2018, and it is expected that the situation has deteriorated further in 2020. A situation which is aggravated by the Polish declaration of a potential withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention. Such a declaration means a huge setback for women’s rights in Poland, which have been having a particularly hard year in this regard.

At CESI, we are looking at this problem with close attention. We have been advocating for many years for the end of gender-based violence, for gender equality and for the elimination of violence at the workplace, which mostly targets women. A major project that CESI has been managing for the past two years on zero tolerance towards third party violence at the workplace showed the urgency of discussing these topics and of standing up for equal rights and for the right to a safe and healthy work environment.

Kirsten Lühmann, President of CESI’s Commission on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, commented: “The EU response to the crisis must not only be about financial and economic alleviations. It must include a dedicated social dimension and in particular seek to ensure the safety and security of women. In the European Commission’s response to the COVID-crisis, domestic violence must not fall off the table and become collateral damage of the crisis.”

Klaus Heeger, CESI Secretary-General, continued: “How is one suppose to accomplish one’s tasks and feel fulfilled when one is insecure, unsafe and psychologically stressed? At CESI we are keen to ensure the end of third-party violence at the workplace, and the fact that this type of violence mostly targets women is another symptom of this problem. Days such as these are very important to change mindsets and set targets and goals.”

The United Nations asks us today to say: “Orange the World: Fund, Respond, Prevent, Collect!” CESI stands today with so many other stakeholders, politicians and activists to demand action.

Could somebody please explain to me why City A is forcing its employees to work from home and at the same time is saying that it now applies 24/7? This would appear to confirm our worst fears: employees are being forced to make themselves available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The willingness to work from home itself is not at all what the employer is seeking, but what it implies is the following: all allowances for working at night, weekends, overtime, on-call duty and the like are now cancelled, because we now have 24/7 working, or more precisely: the “Corona System”. You have to wonder who came up with an idea like this; it sounds like working from home is exclusively seen as a benefit for the employees. But it isn’t.

Take the vexing matter of overtime: public service employers everywhere are using the working from home rule to reduce the number of overtime hours worked. That seems to be the main problem at the moment. It brings to mind the restaurants using the pandemic to carry out necessary renovation work on their premises.

At the moment, restaurants either have very few customers or none at all; this is why it makes sense; but public services have work, a lot of it even because of Covid-19, and often the arrangements make no sense whatsoever.

An additional problem is that many public employers hardly seem to concern themselves with the question of whether the order to reduce overtime can even be enforced unilaterally (i.e. without employees’ consent). This question must be decided individually on the basis of the staff regulations. If there is a reference to the Code of Obligations (and the matter of overtime is not covered by the staff regulations), private law regimes apply, which require employees’ agreement on compensation, otherwise overtime hours must be compensated for financially. But such details are often of no interest.

Swiss union ‘Öffentliches Personal Schweiz’ is fielding many enquiries, always dealing with the same subject: the fact that working from home arrangements (still an emergency recommendation from the Federal Council) come with conditions attached, which suggests that public employers are deeply mistrusting of their employees. Obviously some believe that employees don’t work as hard when working from home. There is no other explanation for why compensating for overtime has been given so much focus, why a new Corona System should come into force and why employers should be able to check up on their employees constantly without any financial compensation, and so on.

The situation is the direct opposite: public service employees aren’t enthusiastic at all about having to work from home. It brings considerable disadvantages. There is a lack of social contact, no ability to discuss technical matters face to face, a lack of infrastructure and, the main one, work and constantly being available to the public employer are brought right into the family sphere: everyone may (and must) take part.

However, only a very small number of people are happy to sit around their kitchen table and perform all of the tasks that they are now expected to do from home. Many employees don’t even have the space needed to be able to keep their work and private lives separate (except around the kitchen table). Yet they are prepared to make their kitchen table available to the public service employer so that the federal government’s recommendations can be followed. That isn’t easy. It’s actually quite tiresome, as the kitchen table was not designed as an office desk. Individuals are accepting these considerable organisational restrictions and the extra effort as a way of making their contribution to overcoming the pandemic.

Perhaps public employers simply can’t imagine that this complete absence of work-life balance doesn’t generate happiness but rather stress. The office is at home, employees provide the spatial infrastructure (sometimes in uncomfortable conditions) on the employer’s behalf. It is therefore jarring when as compensation for this, guidelines are being produced with the primary aim of monitoring output rather than what can be offered in return, “what can we do to make working from home bearable for the family?”. No, overtime must be cut. Instead of support and recognition, there is mistrust and disengagement.

This stance suggests a major misunderstanding has occurred. Nobody in the private sector would simply make space and infrastructure available free of charge, that is the very essence of our market economy system. And nobody would tolerate the constant suspicion that they are sitting at home and doing nothing.

It is therefore high time to talk about making improvements! Improving things for the employees who are keeping operations running, making private space available for this very purpose and seeing some major restrictions placed upon their private lives.

There are some “working from home agreements” circulating in public administration. It is noticeable that the correct distinction is not being made between who even wants to work from home and who is primarily benefiting from it. But that is essential. There are 3 distinct cases:

• Working from home at the request of the employees as part of standard operations (with the employer making a fully equipped workplace available),
• Working from home at the request of the employer with the agreement of the employees,
• Working from home as part of compliance with Federal Council guidelines as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are currently talking about the third variant. This is the variant which sees employees accepting restrictions in the private sphere in order to be able to continue working to requirements. In this scenario the employer is called upon to support the employees and make any necessary working equipment available quickly and free of charge. If the employees use equipment (primarily computers, screens, telephones, software, printers, office space) at their own expense, these costs must be reimbursed. Consideration might be given to what the employer would do if he/she had to maintain the infrastructure himself/herself; it is taken as a given that the employee already has a mobile phone, and has a computer, and has a printer, incurring no costs, which is an approach that would not be found anywhere else in a market economy. If the question is asked differently: do employees who do not have a (new enough) computer have to buy one at their own expense when their employer orders them to work from home as part of Covid-19 guidelines? Hardly.

Public employers ought to view working from home from the perspective of their employees being prepared to work from home so as to help the State and society cope with the pandemic.

Employers must also end the practice of using working from home to do away with unpopular overtime (but which the employees are nonetheless doing), positive holiday balances, time in lieu for being on-call, wage top-ups for working at weekends or night and similar measures. It isn’t right.

Urs Stauffer

President

ZV – Swiss Central Association of Public Personnel

After a year highly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is no longer a surprise that such a press conference took place online. At this press conference, anticipating the upcoming 6-month Portuguese Presidency of the Council, which is taking over after Germany on January 1 2021, the priorities and focus areas within the social domain of the Portuguese government were presented.

A lot of energy will be casted into the coronavirus economic crisis recovery. For that matter, both Commissioner Schmit and Portuguese Minister Ana Mendes Godinho highlighted the necessity of a social, green and digital recovery. Godinho stressed that no green and digital transitions were possible without the basis of a fair social framework.

To respond to this green and digital agenda, the Portuguese Presidency will prioritise the development of skills, notably VET skills, not only to bridge the gap between education and labour market (thus, favouring the integration of young people into the labour world), but also to empower unemployed and underemployed people, in order to upgrade their skills and, consequently, wage valorisation.

The Portuguese Presidency will notably strive for the social inclusion of those most vulnerable. Tackling poverty issues will be a big focus area, with expected initiatives on homelessness, a child guarantee and the inclusion of disabled people. On this regard, two high-level conferences are to be organised: one on homelessness and another one on disabled people.

Commissioner Schmit also stressed an employment policy initiative of the European Commission in the pipeline: a proposal for an EU Pay Transparency Directive, which should be made public in the beginning of 2021. He also mentioned that the Commission is currently working on a proposal on platform workers. Furthermore, both Schmit and Godinho were hopeful to adopt the EU directive on adequate minimum wages during the first semester of 2021.

Last, but certainly not least, the Portuguese Presidency will culminate in a conference centred around the European Pillar of Social Rights, foreseen to take place in May 2021 in Porto. As it happens, and after approximately 4 years of the signing of the Gothenburg Declaration, the Portuguese Presidency will peak with the adoption of an action plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights.

There were certainly several sounding words being used at the press conference: resilience, solidarity, convergence, cohesion. At CESI, we wait to see them becoming actions.

Secretary General Klaus Heeger commented: “The Portuguese Minister certainly seems to be committed to a successful Presidency of the Council, with a focus around employment and social issues. At CESI we are glad to see a valorisation of VET skills on the European Agenda, as it is an issue which we have been advocating for several years. We are also expecting a bold action plan on the European Pillar of Social Rights, and a Pay Transparency Directive which effectively help close the gender pay and pensions gap.”

In the aftermath of the European Vocational Skills Week 2020, which took place from 9th-13th of November, and the publication of the new Pact for Skills, Klaus Heeger talks with CEDEFOP’s Executive Director, Jürgen Siebel, to reflect on the key role Vocational Education and Training (VET) plays on our societies and what further can be done to promote this tool.

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is an important tool for the economic recovery of the coronavirus pandemic. Essential for the reskilling and upskilling of workers, VET also has the potential to play a key role in the green and digital transitions.

How to value VET in comparison to traditional tertiary education paths? How to prepare young people to an ever-changing and dynamic labour market? How to ensure the quality of apprenticeships? What key roles are trade unions to play?

“Dear CESI community embrace the change and shape it!”, Jürgen Siebel’s inspirational last message.

Watch here the conversation.

The week 9th-13th of November was dedicated to the potentials and challenges of vocational education and training. Both Stefan Nowatschin, CESI spokesperson on VET, and Matthäus Fandrejewski, CESI Youth Representative and founding member of the European Apprentices Alliance, contributed to the discussions and highlighted the role of VET skills in the green and digital transitions.

The international climate targets and digitisation are important drivers for far-reaching changes in the labour market of the future. Stefan Nowatschin expressed his conviction that “digital competence and the ability to use resources in a sustainable manner will shape many job profiles”.

Nowatschin and Fandrejewski called for a reorientation of vocational education and training towards the meta-trends ‘digitization’ and ‘sustainability’.

“The transformation to climate-neutral economies and societies can only succeed if vocational education and training adequately prepares the future working population accordingly”, Nowatschin explained in one of the online conferences of the VET Week. Fandrejewski on his part demanded that “all VET learning venues, VET schools, inter-company VET centres, further education institutions and universities must gear their structures towards digitalization and sustainability”.

In his keynote speech, Fandrejewski presented five central aspects for sustainability-oriented training: its financing via Just Transition Fund, in order to ensure a smooth transition into the futural jobs, the reorientation of training and curricula in light of the so-called Green Mainstreaming strategy, the appointment of young sustainability ambassadors at all learning locations, as well as sufficiently qualified staff and modern technical equipment.

“The EU can and must help achieving this reorientation towards sustainability-oriented vocational training”, Nowatschin underlined, and called for a ‘Pact for Vocational Schools’. He pointed out that the Vocational Training Act and the respective school laws must also foresee concrete instructions for action to be taken by school administrations.

“Digitization and sustainability also need leadership in the classroom and in the company or office for successful implementation”, Fandrejewski concluded, and called upon the stakeholders to be present in the crisis and to do everything possible – to continue their training programs and to offer young people perspectives despite these difficult times!

Forthcoming Osnabrück Declaration: The true value of Vocational Education and Training (VET): CESI and its members have been underlining for years that better quality and a focus on a better

CESI’s President Romain Wolff set the trade unions priorities for the next meetings of the Platform:

– Additional resources for tax authorities to deploy instruments of tax cooperation and transparency
– Sufficient number of additional civil servants for tax authorities and facilitate special tax audit trainings and performant data infrastructure
– Effective collection of all taxes: platforms and digital economy

– Qualified Majority Voting (QMV) in the tax matter
– Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base
– Domestic tax base erosion and profit shifting
– Taxation and the European Green Deal

More information about the agenda and the work of the Platform for Tax Good Governance, Aggressive Tax Planning and Double Taxation

CESI Insides about the challenges for teachers in Europe with a focus on France, Germany and The Netherlands. CESI intends to contribute to the discussion relating to the reputation of the teaching profession with a view to creating widespread support within society for education and educational professionals as important agents of social change.

New Manifesto on the future of the teaching profession in Europe

Campaign NoViolenceAtWork

#Teachers #NoViolenceAtWork #CESIInsides #education #schools #TradeUnions #JeSuisProf

It is difficult to underestimate the influence of the United States on the Old Continent, both in terms of customs and technology. The US is the world’s leading economy, it ranks first as oil producers, in military spending and as arms exporters, but above all, it plays a primary role in trade with our continent. Before the unfortunate introduction of duty tariffs on European products, wanted by Trump’s administration, Europe boasted a primary role as a net exporter, with an important trade balance in our favour that ranked us at the top and practically made the Atlantic the main commercial outlet for our goods, as well as sealing that historic alliance that has contributed so much to over 70 years of peace in our continent. The Atlantic alliance has always been a strong bulwark of progress and prosperity in democracy. Therefore, everything that happens on the other side of the Atlantic affects us closely, with consequences that are reflected on a global scale.

All of this, in recent years due to a rather short-sighted policy of Trump’s administration, was in danger of being questioned and the isolationism strongly implemented by Trump has favoured the spread of populist and sovereign behaviour with the risk of going backwards, moving away from that state solidarity that has permeated Western democracy for hundreds of years.

In this very complicated phase, with the times dictated by the expansion of the COVID 19 pandemic, Europe has managed to make a leap forward represented by the measures launched with SURE, the EMS and Next Generation EU. The new US administration can accompany this solidarity vision that is prevailing in Europe with a renewed lifeforce for an Atlantic alliance that can face the titanic challenges of tomorrow, starting from climate change, with a spirit that seemed to be no longer there if we look back just a year ago.

Giving hope back to the younger generations, hope for development and employment and for a future less uncertain and less marked by precariousness: where the strongest do not prevail, but where there are joint forces for a better tomorrow. The new Europe and the new America can and must make this effort, overcoming the logic of customs duties and the reconstruction of walls once demolished like that of Berlin in 1989. A tomorrow made of bridges and not of walls, where being open constitutes the basis for new opportunities, especially for those who have been excluded, starting from the young, from women who do not have gender equality, from the old who too often are left alone.

For this reason, CESI, an independent trade union, but not divorced from politics, welcomes the election of Biden and Harris to lead the world’s largest democracy.

In an international key, Biden could mend relations with China, bring the United States back into the Paris climate agreement, but we know well that the concept of “America First” was not born with Trump, but had already been hovering in US society for some time. Just as we are aware that with the end of the Cold War, which guaranteed US support for the democratic countries of Europe, today that support will no longer be taken for granted as it was until the 90s. Europe must be able to conquer a central role in the world’s chessboard, strengthening the Atlantic axis by building new models of collaboration and prospect, giving the free trade area those opportunities for mutual convenience that also meet the expectations of millions of Americans, as well as European citizens.

The new spirit launched by European governments with Next Generation EU could be able to take up the challenge of a new Atlantic alliance based no longer on assistance from the American giant, but the basis of new reciprocity and opportuneness for both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

It is certainly a complicated challenge, but the election of Biden and Harris allows us to face it in the aim of a new frontier that reshapes a better world than the one that the future would have given us if the American electoral test had gone differently.

Roberto Di Maulo

CESI Vice President

Resulting from an initiative led by the European Youth Forum together with InternsGoPro, and with the European Commission’s support, the International Interns Day is commemorated every year on November 10 since 2015 to raise awareness to the working conditions of interns, and young people by extension.

This year is particularly important to shed light on working conditions of interns: Young people have been among the ones most hit by the coronavirus pandemic, since they are overrepresented in atypical working contracts and in the unprotected platform economy and often work in the sectors most hit by the economic crisis (such as retail or tourism) with difficulties accessing social protection schemes.

Furthermore, working students usually use their summer breaks to work on sectors such as tourism, and save money to pay for their next academic year. This was impossible in 2020, with far reaching consequences for their lives.

On a positive note, the European Parliament approved last month a resolution calling for a ban on unpaid internships. Even if the resolution of the European Parliament was non-legislative, it represents an important element for youth rights and puts the European Parliament as a champion for youth employment. A ban of unpaid internships would be an important step in tackling precarious working conditions for many young people. It would not only empower interns to take ownership of their learning outcomes in their workplaces, but would also tackle their social exclusion and widen opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

CESI Youth Representative, Matthäus Fandrejewski commented: “The CESI Youth has been calling for many years for a ban on unpaid internships, traineeships and apprenticeships, so we are very satisfied to see that the European Parliament has been listening. This year has been truly hard for young people, who have been among the ones most affected in terms of mental health. This is some light in the end of the tunnel for us. We are now keeping an eye on the Council’s actions. It is of utmost importance to prevent a lost generation!”

Watch here the video of the recent online conference “Preventing a Lost Generation 2.0”, co-organised by the CESI Youth with StartNet and the European Youth Forum, with the participation of the Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights Nicolas Schmit, MEP Kira Peter Hansen, and the Head of Unit for Social Policies at Eurofound, Massimiliano Mascherini.

In its position, CESI outlines the following priorities for decent work in a functioning postal industry in Europe:

1. The European legislators must give a clear commitment to the continued existence of an EU postal services directive and, in the event of a revision, ensure for its further development. The overarching priority must be the maintenance or the creation of a sustainable balance between competition, consumer needs, a functioning and economically viable universal service as well as the maintenance of quality jobs within the postal and parcel industry. Wage dumping, discrimination and exploitation of workers must be ruled out.

2. An adequate provision of universal postal services necessitates an ambitious minimum postal infrastructure and minimum service quality.

3. In principle, there must be deliveries in all areas on at least five working days per week. Appropriate measures must be taken to ensure that the national universal postal service provider does not experience any disadvantages compared to competing companies due to the universal service task assigned to it.

4. As the employment situation in the postal and parcel industry regularly witnesses severe social issues and violations of the law, national framework conditions must be created –which could be based on effective and ambitious minimum standards at EU level– that counteract this undesirable development. For example, the payment of minimum wages and compliance with driving times and rest periods must be subject to constant and transparent controls by the responsible national authorities. If rules are not complied with, the executive and judiciary must intervene.

5. Legislators and social partners should undertake for work in the sector to be subject to collective bargaining coverage. By involving the social partners can be ensured that minimum standards are met, acceptable wages paid and workers not exploited and affected by poverty in old age. In the postal and parcel industry, a minimum wage should apply that prevents the risk of poverty.

6. The national legislation of the Member States must introduce subcontractor liability in the letter and parcel industry. In the event of violations of the law by a service partner (subcontractor) of a postal service provider, the postal service provider, as the client, should also be held accountable in future. In case the EU Postal Services Directive is overhauled, this must be included in its revision.

7. The spirit of the European Green Deal and a social Europe would be reflected in the EU postal services directive in case it is revised. From an environmental point of view, increased state funding for alternative engines and innovative models for letter and parcel delivery are urgently needed. The postal operators should agree to make deliveries with a common, low-emission vehicle fleet. For this purpose, the distribution of letters and parcels could be subject to licensing. When issuing such delivery licenses, aspects of environmental protection, but also social security obligations and other criteria can be incorporated. In the context of mandatory licenses, it should be an obligation for all companies providing services in the delivery of letters and parcels to report to national regulatory authorities in a standardised manner on social data such as on the number of employees, the type of contractual agreements, employee turnover, and wage differentials, and social standards, including employment standards, as well as on environmental standards.
When ordering, the customer should be able to decide whether the goods may only be shipped via service providers who adhere to minimum standards, even if for a higher price. The cornerstones of this should be binding within the framework of the EU Postal Services Directive, in case it is revised.

8. As work becomes more and more digital and online based, the protection of employees’ personal data and privacy is more important than ever. Within the framework of the EU Postal Services Directive, but also beyond in the framework of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), employees must be protected from improper monitoring and intervention control of any digital technology used by the employer. Digital systems for the monitoring of employees and workers are to be rejected.

9. The importance of occupational health protection for employees in the postal and parcel industry should be particularly emphasised. In the national legislation of the Member States, appropriate framework conditions must be in place, through which all employees can, normally, maintain health until retirement age. Underpinning national framework conditions via ambitious and binding EU minimum standards would also make sense.

10. Framework conditions should be created in national legislation according to which employees in the postal and parcel industry whose jobs are endangered by advancing digitisation are granted the right to further training. This also requires the involvement of the social partners in the strategic (re) orientation and restructuring of companies, which may be necessary in the course of digitisation and which may make further training necessary, e.g. in the process of the development of new business areas. The employer should be made more responsible with regard to the duty of care for her/his employees. It should be avoided that companies restructure themselves at the expense of the general public (unemployment of/social welfare for staff simply laid off). As a basis for national regulations, ambitious EU minimum standards for further training for staff in the postal sector would be desirable.

The full position of CESI is available here.

laus Heeger talks to MEP Kim van Sparrentak, rapporteur for opinion for an own-initiative report of the European Parliament on artificial intelligence in the education, culture and audio-visual sectors and rapporteur for an own-initiative report of the European Parliament on access to decent and affordable housing for all.

How has the coronavirus pandemic been impacting those most vulnerable, such as women and platform workers?

Watch the video here

Why to choose November 4th as the day to draw attention to the gender pay gap? The answer is very unfortunate: taking into consideration the current pay gap, women in Europe will work for free from this day until the end of the year.

The gender pay gap in the European Union is , on average, approximately 15%. In light of the current coronavirus pandemic, it is expected that this gap will widen, since women, who are overrepresented in precarious forms of work, are amongst those most hardly hit by the health and economic crisis.

CESI, as an organisation which puts gender equality at its heart – also beyond occupational aspects –, highlights the continued importance of achieving gender economic equality to empower women. In order to do so, CESI calls the EU institutions to deliver an efficient Pay Transparency Directive as soon as possible, fundamental to help bring about pay equality between men and women and thus to ensure equal treatment between women and men at the workplace.

CESI expects such a directive to set ambitious and binding standards for pay transparency which should be generally applicable to all employees and effective sanctions for those Member States who do not implement or enforce the directive.

Initiatives such as this one, on pay transparency, go hand in hand with other directives which are very important to close the pay, career and pension gaps, notably the EU’s Work-life Directive (which is now in its transposition phase in the member-states) and the Women on Boards Directive (which is, unfortunately, still in the negotiation phase and continues to be blocked by the Council).

It is important to raise awareness to this, so our societies can elevate the roles women play, since the gender pay gap is also a direct consequence of unpaid care and domestic work, which mostly falls on women.

To discuss these issues and more, CESI Secretary General, Klaus Heeger, recently hosted a conversation with the chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, MEP Evelyn Regner. Watch the full conversation here.

Yes, the rollercoaster policies (in basically all European countries) have revealed a helplessness (or was it maybe, as some claim, (gross) negligence?) and led to unclear, confusing and even clearly contradictory messages – with now again exploding infection rates, hospital admissions and death tolls.

Has this (foreseeable) second wave been underestimated? “No! Maybe. Certainly!” we will say, according to our beliefs. And while “end of the world” scenarios implore citizens to accept and abide by tremendous restrictions of their rights and freedoms (Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo on October 30: “These are our last chance measures!”), others, even medics, deplore the harshness of the restrictions or even the inefficiency and disproportionality of general confinement measures.

What are we facing? How big are the collateral economic, social, educational, psychological and other confinement-related health damages we are willing to bear? What about those hit the most by the socio-economic impacts of the crisis containment measures? What about the young, what about women, what about the unemployed, the solo-self-employed, what about the most vulnerable ones and their future?

What are we willing to accept? We have been trying to answer these core ethical questions for quite a while now, for the society and for ourselves. And yes, there is fortunately still a widely accepted consensus that human lives, regardless of their age, count, that human lives must prevail over profit, that human lives are to be saved – (so far) at any costs. But for how long? How many lockdowns will we be willing to accept, to how many can we survive?

Our societies continue to be put to the test.

I strongly believe what we should all learn from the crisis is humility and respect – respect for other opinions, for other views, for others interests. So instead of preaching (alleged) absolute and unshakable truths and forcing them upon others, instead of calling those who don´t share our point of view either ‘Covidiots’ or ‘Confinement-Ayatollahs’, we could rather try to understand each other’s fears.

Also having trust in the fact that those who must take unpleasant decisions probably don’t feel enormous pleasure doing it either, may help. Because, to come back to Robert Boyer, since ‘we don’t know yet what we will finally know, but too late’, we will, in the future, probably ‘have to forgive each other a lot’.

In these times, trade unions have an even more prominent role to play; not just for their members and those at risk, but also as overall societal stabilisers.

Third Party Violence – Together we can draw the line.

And as we speak of trade union support: Needless to recall that the horrific crime committed against French teacher Samuel Patty and the terrorist attacks in Nice and Vienna will continue to require strong trade union presence and assistance. Because sadly, these attacks often target our affiliates directly. “He was one of us, this is an attack against us French teachers!” a French colleague recently cried out close to tears as we spoke about Samuel Paty. What adds to the tragedy in his case, was not only the degree of brutality but the whole context – namely the fact that it was linked to a lesson on freedom of expression and a subsequent online hate frenzy.

What does it mean for us? Of course, we can get carried away in absolute outrage, we can (pretend to) defend our values and principles with ‘zero tolerance’ (towards the intolerant), we can conjure the extreme urgency to take effective and implacable measures so to avoid that words on social media translate into crimes of such horrific dimension, and we can claim that “we will continue, yes, the fight for freedom and for the reason of which you are now the face, because we owe it to you, because we owe it to ourselves, because in France, teacher, the Enlightenment will never go out,” as Manuel Macron put it in his (very poignant) speech.

But we must go further: Instead of giving in to outrage and battle-cries, we must adopt behaviours and measures – to make sure that we do not leave those alone who are supposed to transmit, to represent and to defend our ‘sacred’ values. Indignation and wrath will only further deepen the rips, the polarisation and the social-media-catalysed unforgiveness and extremism.

Macron said that “in every school, every collège, every lycée, we will give back to our teachers the power to ‘make republicans’… Space and the authority will return to them. We will train them, consider them as we must, support them, protect them as much as we must. In school and outside school, the pressure, the abuse of ignorance and obedience that some want to establish have no place here.”

These are CESI´s longstanding demands, and we realise that trade unions on the ground are more needed than ever. They are the ones which can truly protect and assist. Having trust in their support is not the worst thing to do, especially in times of crisis; believing in their overall societal stabilising function neither, especially in times of polarisation and extremism.

Our just-published video against third party violence ends with the sentence “Together, we must draw the line.”

We owe it to Samuel Paty. We owe it to the victims in Austria and France. We owe it to our members.

Third-party violence at Work: We can draw the line!

After nearly two years of intense work, with some delay due to the unforeseen pandemics, CESI mainly EU-funded project “Trade unions for zero tolerance towards third-party violence at work” comes now to a closure. After a truly European journey, which took us from The Hague (before the official start of the project), to Berlin, Madrid and Budapest, the final event, due to take place in Bordeaux, was eventually held online in light of the coronavirus pandemic social restrictions.

The message from CESI’s members is clear and unequivocal: “No more third-party violence at the workplace!”

Public sector workers are often the object of the disagreement and frustration citizens often feel towards their governments. Independent trade unions gather to condemn such acts, but also to demand action from governments and employers to prevent acts of violence at the workplace.

Public servants, like their peers in other professions, have the right to safe and healthy workplaces. To ensure this, CESI community remembers the importance of social dialogue and demands a policy of zero tolerance towards violence, an awareness of the responsibility of employers who have the duty to provide with specific training, the obligation of reporting of violent acts given the lack of data, and for workers to be provided with the proper tools to know how to deal with violent behaviours, be them verbal or physical, up to cyber harassment.

Independent Trade Unions speak one voice against violence in the #NOVIOLENCEATWORK campaign launching a video in thirteen different languages.

As CESI Secretary-General Klaus Heeger has repeatedly highlighted throughout the project, “it is about protecting those who protect and caring for those who care. An attack against a teacher, an attack against a policeman, an attack against a firefighter, an attack against a nurse or a doctor, are attacks against us as citizens, parents, pupils, patients. An attack against our members is an attack against us all!”

In this context, it is important to reinforce the idea that trade unions not only have an important role in helping to build a prevention culture but also, and maybe most importantly, in accompanying the victims of violence and letting them feel they are not alone.

Together, we can draw the line. Together we can end violence at work.

Contacts of CESI Member Organisations

More info and deliverables of the project

The project is co-funded by the European Union

For the first time ever, the European Parliament is having a Gender Equality Week. Klaus Heeger talks with European Parliament’s FEMM Committee chairwoman, Evelyn Regner, on the Work-life Balance Directive, the Pay Transparency Directive, the Women on Boards Directive and expectations for the near future for the Council Presidency.

Will the corona pandemic crisis represent a setback in the road towards gender equality? What can our institutions and trade unions do to prevent that from happening?

Watch here the conversation in full.

After a preliminary assessment, CESI:

• positively notes the envisaged broad scope of the directive (article 2), but recalls the need for a European legal clarification on the status of platform workers (which CESI has long been calling for) and an explicit inclusion into the minimum wage framework of the precarious (bogus) solo self-employed, who should have the right to collective bargaining, in order to increase its impact for many who are economically active in precarious situations;
• welcomes the planned requests towards Member States to issue action plans where collective bargaining coverage is below 70% (article 4), but wonders what are the consequences would be if an action plan would not deliver improvements in terms of higher wage levels;
• on article 5, is concerned about the lack of a clear definition of “adequacy” of minimum wage levels, since no quantifiable objective is proposed, and about the lacking of a clear timeframe to review and update minimum wage levels in the Member States;
• considers that article 6 on variations and deductions could legitimise existing loopholes for categories of workers in the Member States even if it should be a central objective of the EU framework to close gaps;
• strongly favours, in article 7, that all social partners are involved in the setting, reviewing and updating of national minimum wages – and not just the biggest one;
• very much welcomes the suggestion to tie public procurement effectively and systematically to requirements for successful tenders to apply minimum wages to their staff.

“The support for strong collective bargaining to set decent wages in the Member States is a priority that CESI also advocates for. Here, we are pleased to be in synchronicity with the European Commission’s proposal”, CESI President Romain Wolff said. “Our goal, regardless of the institution or governance level, should always be to ensure decent working and living conditions for workers, especially those in precarious employment conditions, and if this can be achieved in the frame of a strengthened collective bargaining, then this is perfect”, Romain Wolff concluded.

CESI Secretary-General Klaus Heeger, added: “We agree with Commissioner Schmit that collective bargaining should be the golden rule across the Member States. However, we believe that where social dialogue and collective bargaining fail to deliver minimum wages, at least at the at-risk-of-poverty threshold, there should be a clear path set by the framework to achieve this. In this respect, the proposal of the European Commission should be strengthened during upcoming negotiations between the European Parliament and the Council.”

CESI will analyse the European Commission’s proposal in greater detail within its statutory organs, for a detailed assessment.

Further information about the proposal on the European Commission’s website

CESI’s contribution to the second-phase social partner consultation on an EU minimum wage framework (2020)

CESI’s contribution to first-phase social partner consultation on an EU minimum wage framework (2020)

According to the Independent Trade Union and Civil Servants Central (CSIF):

– Health requires an additional plan with 289,235 between 2021-2031 to match the EU average;

– The union proposes a multi-year salary agreement to regain purchasing power: each public employee has lost between 24,611 and 53,362 euros in their payroll since 2010, the equivalent of working more than one year for free;

– CSIF demands that the Government negotiate the Recovery Plan and a human resources plan to reinforce staff. Only the State Administration spends almost 56 million a year on advisers.

CSIF considers that this reinforcement – intended for the Health, Education, Justice, General State Administration staff – should be contemplated in the Government’s Recovery Plan.

The effects of the pandemic have highlighted the structural needs of our public administrations, which have been stressed and on the verge of collapse in areas such as health and educational centres, the State Public Employment Service (SEPE), Social Security or the administration of justice, due to the increase in the volume of files.

The CSIF report makes a diagnosis in different areas based on the fact that in the last 10 years 100,916 jobs have been destroyed. Likewise, CSIF reviewed the indicators such as the increase in the population over 65 years of age, the differences in investment and professional ratios with respect to the European average or the increase in pending cases in the Justice.

These are the needs:

General State Administration —————– 43,700 places.

Education —————————————— 43.393 places.

Justice ———————————————– 19,299 places.

CSIF study on EEPP pay loss period 2010/2020

CSIF Proposal for the reconstruction of Public Administrations

Full press release in Spanish

he European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) is a consultative body of the European Union composed of social partners: employers (employers’ organisations), employees (trade unions) and representatives of various other interests.

CESI’s President Romain Wolff, on the occasion of his appointment as a Member of the EESC, has declared:

“There is a lot of issues to improve in our Union and I’m very pleased to bring the voices and opinions of the public sector employees in this EU consultative body. Now, more then ever, we need to work on solidarity and find the right solutions for the workers in Europe facing incredible challenges coming from the Covid19 pandemic”.

The EESC is having two complementary missions:

– Involving civil society organisations more in the European venture, at both national and European level,

– Boosting the role of civil society organisations in non-member countries or country groupings where the committee is furthering structured dialogue with civil society organisations, and promoting the creation of consultative structures based on its experiences, not least in the countries applying for EU membership.

Here more about the activities of the European Economic and Social Committee

After proposals from the employers´ side which were considered insufficient, the two trade unions managed to reach an agreement with the employers on 1.4% pay increase for all workers as of 1 April 2021, with a further increase 1.8% increase in 2022.

In addition, specific allowances are foreseen for shift work, intensive care and care in institutions, both nurses and doctors benefitting from it. Minimum thresholds will lead to a pay increase of up to 2,59% in 2021 for the lowest-paid workforce.

More information

See the interview with Ulrich Silberbach, Federal President of the ´dbb beamtenbund und tarifunion´here:

Ms Semedo is Member of Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (EMPL) and Committee on Petitions (PETI) representing the Renew Europe Group.

KKSZ is fighting for a legal social sector strike since 2019. They have not been able to achieve this goal yet, as the Hungarian government regulates the social sector strike while demanding the so-called 100% “still sufficient service”. This practically means that it requires 100% work during the strike, making the strike impossible.

The main goal of this strike is a wage increase, as the salary scale of civil servants in the social sector has remained unchanged for 13 years.

In addition, this year the government awarded HUF 500,000 to healthcare workers in exchange for their work during the pandemic.

Workers in the social sector received nothing, although during the quarantine period, health care was “paused,” and the social sphere functioned not only fully, but with extra work.

As a “traditional” strike is not legally possible at the moment, MKKSZ announced an online social sector strike on Facebook page as part of an event, “FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND FOR 500,000!” title.

The demand in this form is nothing more than a wage increase and that all employees in the social sector receive the same reward of HUF 500,000.

CALL TO ACTION

In this form of strike (or here most) the number of participants is key. That is why we ask CESI’s connections to share the link of the strike’s Facebook event on its website, on all social media platforms, and to all its employees, all members, all organizations and ask everyone to support the MKKSZ movement by clicking on the “I will be there” button.

Event registration: https://fb.me/e/2VbCWW18R

More info: www.mkksz.org.hu/

In its consultation statement, CESI called on the European Commission to work to reduce precarious employment across the EU in favour the creation of high quality jobsin the sector and stressed that workers in the parcel industry must also have a right to fair pay, social benefits and attractive working conditions and that to this end, it is essential that:

• bogus soloself-employment is eliminated and that the excessive system of subcontractors based on social dumping isabolished. An EU-level system must be developed to prevent the exploitation of employees/bogus solo self-employed workers and to enable an easy control and enforcement of sanctions for exploitative companies and subcontractors in the sector.

• an EU-wide binding minimum wage systemis achieved, which, taking into account national circumstances, must in principle be based on a percentage of the average wages inthe country concerned and which puts a stop to existing national loopholes in minimum wages. Wages, especially for delivery workers, must rise appreciably. It is not acceptable that, in a booming industry, wage levels –as hashappened in recent years– fall, thereby devaluing the work of a parcel delivery workers.

•minimum standards for working conditions in the parcel industry are elaborated and rendered mandatory, with the aim to prevent employees in the parcel industry from being exploited.

CESI underlined that these objectives must also be achieved by hard legislative measures and that the (application of the) EU regulation on cross-border parcel delivery services should also be subordinated to them.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Working conditions in the parcel delivery sector in Europe is too often exploitative and based on unethical employment practices and social dumping. The liberalisation agenda driven by the European Union during the last decades has contributed to this. The EU must urgently remedy the evident damages that its own legislation has contributed to.”

The full consultation contribution is available here.

Beyond the incommensurable human tragedy, this inconceivably abominable crime strikes us at our very foundation. Each and every terrorist attack underlines the challenges we face, and the strength we need, to fight for the maintenance of our values of freedom, and, as President Macron put it rightly, ‘for our right to believe or not to believe’.

I am deeply shocked by the unbelievable brutality, and it is now more than ever that we need to stand together to defend our freedom and democracy, our freedom of speech, our freedoms to believe – or not. As a pluralistic society, we must remain unconditionally intransigent towards any form of extremism, and, as a trade union confederation that also represents teachers, we highlight how crucial it is to protect those representing, conveying and teaching our values and principles”.

According to Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI, the challenges for schools and teachers remain tremendous: “To face increasing violence, extremism and intolerance demands above all courage and dedication, belief and commitment, both towards our children and towards our societies. In their central role for society and our future, teachers deserve unconditional support from pupils, parents, citizens, media and politics. That is our vocation, now and in the future. This is the least we owe to the victim.”

Unions in favour of a zero-tolerance approach towards external violence at work | #NoViolenceAtWork

#JeSuisProf

#JeSuisSamuel

#ParisDeclaration

Chaired by Javier Jordán of CESI’s Spanish member CSIF and Kirsten Lühmann, affiliate of CESI’s German member dbb, the meeting brought together representatives from CESI’s various member organisations in charge of horizontal employment and social policies as well as a number of presidents and vice-presidents of CESI’s sectoral members’ trade councils to talk about the European Pullar of Social Rights and the role of Trade Unions during Covid-19.

They all reported: Covid has led to a real crisis for workers and employees, with health and safety having been compromised on in many occasions and numerous jobs being lost or threatened, and with especially women being disproportionally on the losing front and in many ways, be it in terms of exposure to the virus (most health and care workers are women), violence (enduring lockdowns led to increase stress and agressions leves in confined homes and families) or reduced financial independence (women are overepresented in precarious types of jobs without adequate protection and social security, which have been cut first during the crisis).

They however also stressed: Correctly managed, the Covid fallout could provide the opportunity for an unprecenteded sustainable economic bounceback based on social justice, inclusive growth, digitalisation and climate and environmental protection.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “The European Commission has a central role to play in steering the resources of the EU’s unprecedented, almost €700 billion heavy Recovery and Resilience Facility in the right direction. The loans and grants that Member States will receive from the EU must not only serve big business but serve to implement the EU’s New Green Deal and the European Pillar of Social Rights on an equal footing. Citizens, workers and climate and the environment must come first.”

Pandemic push in the digital sector

Even though the Covid-19 pandemic is not yet over, it can be stated that telework got heavily pushed overnight. The State is currently considering a maximum of three full teleworking days and regarding the Communes, the Minister of the Interior started a survey with the objective of making remote work from home more and more socially acceptable.

At the beginning of the year, on request to stay home teleworking, your boss would probably have looked at you in a funny way. However, once in lockdown times, people whose job would allow for it, managed to go over to remote work in a swift and effective way. As we were experiencing an emergency situation, we precisely did what was doable. Nobody would ask for regulations and procedures.

The motto was rather “legal, illegal, fuck it”. And it made sense, given that we were in an emergency situation.

Emergency is not normality

Living and working together in an emergency situation is certainly not the same as evolving in ordinary everyday life. Therefore, we need to give it some thought and find a way to work together in the future, all the more as digitalisation is a hot topic and we cannot collectively stick our head into the sand.

Considering that even the Government had no clear ideas on how to regulate what, by law, ruling etc., the Economic and social council (Conseil Économique et Social – CES) got tasked with issuing a position on telework. Globally, it was about discussing a unified position of employers and employees with regard to the economic and social consequences of telework and come up with a general piece of advice. Parts of this paper reproduce concrete positions that were elaborated in the CES’s advice.

It seems pretty clear that promoting and regulating remote work from home is indeed not enough. The matter is far more complex and parallelly entails a plethora of interrogations and challenges.

Among the recent topics in the labour world, there are:

• More autonomy and responsibility for the teleworker.
• Risk of social isolation for the teleworker.
• Fear of hierarchical superior to lose control.

Valuing of personal autonomy – Focus on individual skills

In general, it can be found that due to increasingly higher qualification and the resulting willingness for self-realisation, more and more people, some more, some less, strive for liberation from the constraints of organised work. Personal autonomy is getting more important. An evolution that definitely is at the detriment of hierarchy, specifically full of rigid constraints. And this evolution leads to questioning the existing hierarchy. Furthermore, this prompts the question of who should control work. More and more, the stakes are about valuing personal autonomy while focussing on individual competences.

Long-chain organisational charts with many levels as currently implemented, will make way to flat organigrams, precisely meaning that an ever-increasing number of employees will exercise a real authority in their specific field of competence. Internally, communication is evolving horizontally and getting less hierarchised. In this way, autonomy, empowerment, work on common objectives will evolve increasingly in the direction of an individualisation of work and self-control. What will of course render telework more interesting. This implies transferring certain responsibilities from the employer to the employee, such as time management, work organisation and also transferring certain risks.

Risk of social isolation for the teleworker

Teleworkers isolation is one of the main concerns in this context. We are intentionally going to disregard this aspect in the current article as our aim is to focus on the hierarchy and its evolution.

It is to be noted that remote workers’ involvement will be an important task for those handling staff, lately also referred to as human resources in Luxembourg. Special approaches are needed as far as training and teambuilding are concerned.

Fear of hierarchical superior to lose control

The fear to lose control over one’s staff is one of management’s major challenges. Due to the distance from normal work environment, different workplaces as well as the flexibility in working hours, a personalised control over staff is rather difficult. Telework is suppressing two fundamental parameters of traditional labour, that is the workplace itself (thus the possibility to control the workers) and their physical presence (the ability of the workers to interact with their colleagues).

Even though there exist specific programmes allowing work to be somehow “supervised”, some questions remain open, notably: What is it that is needed, controlling working hours or results? What objective criteria do exist to carry out such supervision? How to measure what needs controlling?

There is not one single solution for all those questions. There are as many different companies with various tasks as there is a variety of persons in the labour world. Moreover, the supervision factor depends on their skills, responsibilities and so forth. A core element is definitely mutual trust. This is a must. And that is exactly where the problem is in the working world.

Core element: Trust between employer and employee

It appears that the trust among the parties is a determining factor for telework. And this is obviously a human quality that needs fostering and maintaining within a company.

However, it can also be found that a working world based on many staff working from home and exclusively based on trust, is a bit daring. Consequently, solid trust needs to be complemented with a sound control. Both are mutually dependant.

On the importance of a competent human resources management

As a conclusion of the previous, it clearly appears that it is not enough to simply implement telework. While considering the context of an ever-turning digitalisation, it is obvious that the orientation of human resources management has to be quite different. It is no less than a paradigm shift in the labour culture. Communication is again key. It is about creating transparency as to telework, not least to avoid any abuse. Moreover, it must be ensured that those who are not working from home and are present at work, do not consider that they get the second prize.

This leads to the conclusion that remote working is an organisational project rather than a technological one.

Supressing hierarchy makes no sense

When talking about an organisational project, we are again not far from our hierarchical structures in our companies and administrations. Does this mean that we should suppress this hierarchy? Doesn’t this pyramidal structure have a great deal of advantages that we could include into the changes?

Let’s put it as follows: The classical decision pyramid from the industrial area, where the boss would make all the decisions and the others execute them, certainly is a discontinued model. As seen, the future begs for different organisational structure so as to allow us to handle our digitalised world. Which does not mean that all hierarchical mechanisms need to be removed.

What is hierarchy capable of ?

By definition, hierarchy isn’t that bad. It does indeed present a few decisive advantages:

• Orientation = clearly defined tasks, responsibilities, and decision procedures.
• Reliability = Team and processes are defined and rolling.
• Safety = Individuals seldomly risk far-reaching consequences as responsibility lies somewhere else.

Orientation, reliability, and safety are aspects that most people find important, even when already working in a techno-agile and connected way. The exciting question would thus be how to transmit the advantages of the pyramidal model to our digitalised world? Over the last 50 years, the world has been spinning ever faster. Everything is moving. Missions are gaining in complexity, decisions need to be taken always quicker, requiring the pyramid to get increasingly moveable, decisions to be taken swifter, especially when distributing the decision-making power is at stake. A classical hierarchy is coupled to a particular position: The higher the position, the larger the executional power. A model where it does not matter whether the deciding person would indeed have the necessary knowledge to make that particular decision.

In the future, this model will reach its limits. In case that less complex tasks are anyhow taken over by a computer, the more complex missions will have to be carried out by humans, in collaboration with co-workers and in the context of the world’s global evolution. Everyone has some knowledge that someone else has not. The one having the solution for a specific question has to get the possibility to take the related decision. Such an emerging mobile pyramid will be able to distribute the decision-making power differently, according to a mission or project. Meaning that it is no longer about the position one occupies in the company, but about the best competence to complete an actual task.

A young intern might for instance take the lead for one particular project simply as they would know more on the topic. Their boss would play the part of the intern, learning new stuff. Roles and responsibilities will thus be newly defined according to the task to be executed.

Self-responsibility needs self-confidence

Will everyone be able to take over responsibilities? Theoretically yes. Not immediately of course. Persons who would only have executed instructions over years will hardly be able to turn into an independent entrepreneur overnight. Self-responsibility and organisation have to be learnt step by step. It is about making people aware of their own capabilities. How to do so will be the topic of the next edition of FGFC ‘Mag. Overall, this subject is quite complex when considered in-depth, but instrumental for the future orientation of our working world.

The elementary thing is to recognise that changes are under way, whether we like it or not. The challenges are huge. The Covid-19 pandemic even puts these challenges in a different context. Collectively, there is no need to be scared by the future. Living means changing, on an everyday basis. We face up to that, together with our children.

Quotes :

Telework is an organisational project rather than a technological project.

What should be measured in what way in a controlled manner?

It is about personal autonomy with a focus on individual skills.

It is not one’s position in a company that matters, but the person sporting the most concrete skills.

Marco Thomé
FGFC Président
Luxembourgish General Federation of Local Administration

In their joint statement, the social partners (re)affirm:

• as part of a sustained effort on the part of governments to suppress, control and prevent the deadly virus, the importance of a much sharper focus on occupational health and safety and inequalities as an integral part of public health and effective responses to health emergencies;

• in the run-up to a fair recovery for all and EU coordination through the Semester, the need to maintain central the renewed recognition of the vital role of the public sector in dealing with a pandemic; far from being an hindrance, it has been once more time well-tested that a public administration is an asset to support governments, citizens and business;

• that what constitutes a public administration is its employees, whose work and dedication for the general interest must be supported, better valued and expanded;

• that buffers and “spare capacity-building” represent the best prevention and response to a sanitary crisis;

• that public sector employees must be valued as part of the economic recovery, and that, accordingly, public investment in the public sector and its personnel will be critical to reduce inequalities and unemployment and to a social, environment-friendly, economic recovery;

• related to the above, the importance of fiscal sustainability for a well-functioning democratic welfare state;

• that the best way to protect citizens in public institutions, closed or open, not least those in a vulnerable situation is to protect the employees and civil servants charged with their care; therefore these workers must be prioritized in terms of protective equipment, Covid-19 testing programmes, adapted working time and work/life balance, and avoiding, to the maximum possible extent, overtime, which is a serious health risk factor;

• the proven value of social dialogue and/or collective bargaining including on occupational health and safety measures, and of regular, factual, clear information and timely consultation with staff and their trade union representatives to protect exposed employees and civil servants;

• social partners’ responsibility to ensure that all health risk preventive measures be taken and maintained over time, in close consultation of the personnel and trade union representatives as well as occupational doctors, before lifting or easing of the lockdowns at each stage of the gradual resumption of activity;

• the employer’s duty to ensure that all workers feel and be safe and protected to continue or return to work, proper attention be paid to commuting time, and to avoid risks of overburdening public healthcare and public transport if too many people return to work at the same time and to finding alternatives, in consultation or negotiation with the trade unions;

• the importance of fairer wages, not least for those on low income and at greater health risks, and of equal pay and pay transparency;

• amid welcome appraisal of public sector workers who have shown their dedication, resilience and flexibility on the frontlines or teleworking throughout the pandemic, our determination to work jointly to end all unjustified exemptions from EU minimum social standards with a view to ensure equal treatment with other workers, in line with the EU pillar of social rights;

• accordingly, our long-standing request to the EU Commission to implement by a legislative proposal for adoption in Council the SDC CGA agreement on workers’ rights to information and consultation, not least on restructuring, which now appears all the more legitimate and relevant, with information and consultation rights of workers’ representatives at times of crisis being more important than ever;

• the urgency of drawing lessons, in consultation with the personnel and their trade union representatives, from daily teleworking and the impact of digital tools, as part of the lockdown measures, on occupational health and safety, job content, work/life balance, access to internet and IT equipment as well as on the quality of and access to public administrations online; and

• their commitment, as EU social partners for central/federal government administrations to the protection of citizens and workers, public sector values, and the EU social and democratic project, which has never been more valid than today.

The full joint statement is available here.

In a debate with stakeholders from the different EU institutions, permanent representations of the Member States, European social partners, civil society organisations, and of course, members of CESI, this point of view on the potential of the crisis was shared by all speakers:

Gabriele Bischoff, MdEP, European Parliament, Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
• Javier Jordán de Urríes Sagarna, Justice Sector President, Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union (CSIF)
• Ricardo Rodriguez, Research Manager, European Foundation of the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)
• Denis Pennel, Managing Director, World Employment Confederation (WEC)

Most notably, from the discussion, two sets of action fields emerged for trade unions:

First, trade unions need to proactively and constructively shape employment in the Covid and post-Covid world of work, as social partners and together with policy makers and employer representatives, which refers to ensuring high occupational health and safety levels for workers, the protection of jobs and access to adequate social protection, and the regulation of strong and effective labour rights in areas such as home office and remote working.

Secondly, they must seek to re-invent themselves and their services in order to cater not only for the interests of their members but also for those of other workers and groups of workers, in particular those that have been hit especially hard by the crisis, thus using their work to profile themselves and reach out to grow in membership and, by extension, importance.

Decent work – two simple words which require legally binding employment contracts guaranteeing decent pay, social protection, a healthy and safe workplace, equal occupational opportunities and non-discrimination, and the possibility to be effectively represented by trade unions.

In 2020, COVID-19 has highlighted the challenges that many, -including but not only-, frontline workers have been being experiencing – ranging from lacking protective equipment and access to a safe and healthy workplace, and deficient social protection coverage for many platform workers and solo self-employed.

On World Day for Decent Work, CESI reiterates that decent work is a human right that trade unions must stand up for every day – for all those who do not see this right being upheld. Decent work and economic growth is also one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which underlines its importance not only for the cohesion of our societies today, but tomorrow as well.

CESI stresses that decent work is so fundamental that it reflects itself the achievement of further SDG’s as well, notably: No Poverty (Goals 1); Zero Hunger (Goal 2); Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities (Goals 5 and 10). Ensuring that every person has a decent job is a part of the process to ensure that our societies will meet these SDGs as well.

In order to actively fight for decent work, CESI currently runs two projects:

– Trade Unions for Zero Tolerance towards Third-Party Violence at the Workplace
– Precarious Work: Empowering Trade Unions to Address New Challenges

CESI is also part of the OSHA 2020-22 campaign “Healthy Workplaces Lighten the Load” to share best practices among its membership on how to promote healthy and safe work environments.

It is a privilege for CESI to fight for decent work every day. All workers count!

“Teachers, trainers and educational staff are at the heart of education”: In the brand new European Commission’s Communication on Achieving the European Education Area by 2025, unveiled yesterday, the European Commission put teachers as one of the six dimensions underpinning the future European Education Area. This reflects what CESI has been advocating for many years.

CESI’s Trade Council on Education had met online to discuss how education professionals had been able to ensure a continuity of teaching during the unprecedented disruption of education caused by the Covid-19 crisis and how this had fed into CESI‘s position on the updated Digital Education Action Plan –

a new Digital Education Action Plan which has meanwhile been published by the European Commission as well, together with the new Communication on Achieving the European Education Area. After the publication of a CESI Manifesto for the Teaching Profession: Horizon 2025 in 2019, and after the European Commission had set out the European Commission’s vision for a European Education Area by 2025 during the Gothenburg Social Summit in 2017, both had been eagerly awaited by CESI and the members of its Education Trade Council.

While trade council members welcomed the central place that teachers are given in the package published by the European Commission yesterday, concerns were expressed on how the first principle of the European Pillar of Social Rights, namely the right to quality and inclusive education for all, has been so harshly endangered by the health crisis, which has further highlighted in inequalities among children in education, with less advantaged having less possibilities to follow remote education, and among teachers, with different backgrounds and capabilities to offer distance teaching. In particular, trade council members raised concerns about difficulties to teach to special needs children and students in vocational education and training, due to the essential factor of a mix of theoretical learning and practical working.

Trade council President Claude Heiser from the Luxembourgish CGFP said: “During the crisis the role of teachers has been more highly acknowledged by society. With this unprecedented disruption in education, citizens and parents realised how important and crucial teachers are and which responsibility they bear in the difficult task of conveying knowledge, competences and values to children who are meant to become resposible citizens of the future. In this context, the human factor is key: It cannot be all conveyed exclusively through remote education – which became a reality almost from night to day, but which cannot be the primary way of teaching and learning.”

Trade Council Vice-President Salvatore Piroscia from the Italian Confsal added: “Although we have been talking about the importance of including new technologies in education in a smart and smooth way for many years now, both for pupils and education professionals, we had probably never thought that this would become the only way of ensuring education suddenly during a crisis. For the first time pupils and teachers experienced what ‘social distancing’ is and how important human interaction is to have a interactive dialogue among each other – and not only through a screen”.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger concluded: „CESI will be following closely the implementation of the new European initiatives that were published yesterday and will continue to highlight the need support to all teachers and education professionals in these challenging times and beyond. In line with our manifesto for the teaching profession, CESI can only fully agree with the European Commission’s finding that ‘the teaching profession as such needs to be revalorised, in social and, in some Member States, also in financial terms‘. We hope that the European Commission‘s vision for a European Education Area 2025 will be underpinned withwith proper investments at the EU and national levels – also in terms of infrastructure, workforce and training. Implementing the first principle of the Pillar of inclusive and quality education for all must be a real goal even in unexpected difficult times.”

The Trade Council “Education” was held in the framework of CESI’s ongoing “PULSER” Project (“Performing public services for the best possible implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights”), with the financial support from the European Union.

Dear colleagues, dear members, dear friends,

We have come back from holidays, started our work again, hoping somehow things would come back to normal. Yet they have not.

So what now? For us at CESI, despite all uncertainties, the decisions of our Board and Presidium have paved the way for our Congress to take place on 10-11 of December.

The motto “30 years of commitment. Now more than ever.” stands for, on the one hand, continuity, reliability and experience, and on the other hand that this ‘legacy’ also leads to the pledge – now more than ever – to commit us even more.

As we could particularly experience in the past months, trade unions are needed – in times of crises more than ever. And support for trade unions is currently at its high. But the question is whether we will be up to the challenges, to the expectations – also in the future.

We will have to adapt to new ways and forms of work. We will have to review our own work, we will have to target new potential members -the young, the atypical workers, the solo self-employed, the unemployed-, we will have to be more ´modern´ – without turning our back to our traditional longstanding members.

At CESI, we are currently experiencing such ‘renewal’, as the Covid-19 restrictions catalyse developments which had already been initiated before the pandemic. In brief, we are trying to refocus our activities and assess their added value – in terms of political, financial, or social return.

Our activities shifted from more traditional events and meetings (in any way currently strongly hampered by the pandemic restrictions) to a series of new events with different targets. But: Although new concepts have been introduced very swiftly (and despite the fact that our ways of working after the pandemic will remain different from the pre-Corona ones), we will (and we must), sooner or later, rediscover the value of the ‘proven’.

Trade union work is based on the human factor, on direct relations, on interpersonal connections. As an affiliate put it recently in a meeting: “With Covid-19 it becomes more and more difficult to reach out to new members. A virtual meeting, a flyer, an email, a website or a slogan are not enough to create a sense of belonging. Human interrelation is essential.”

And the same applies to international work. Getting back to (admittedly redesigned and adapted) traditional ways of work – and maybe even to concepts which we believed to be completely over the hill – will also reflect this ‘human factor’.

This means a mixture between ‘keeping the old’ and ‘trying the new’. It will be a balance between ‘retaining the proven’ and ‘renewing the less-used’. It will mean trial, and it will mean error. Ultimately, this will not be possible without intense communication and without strong support.

“30 years of commitment. Now more than ever.”

Thank you all for that!

ounger generations are preparing themselves for the second hit of their lives. After alarming levels of youth unemployment provoked by the 2008 financial crisis, these levels are once again skyrocketing, especially in Southern Europe, because of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis. CESI Youth board welcomed the timely reinforced Youth Guarantee, which was the subject of the online conference co-organised with StartNet and the European Youth Forum in July 2020. Nevertheless, these numbers will continue rising if not more is done.

“It is time we think of the people behind the figures: the friends who already lost their jobs, those who might not be able to pay for university, those scarred with the fear of uncertainty. It is of the faces behind the numbers we need to think when adopting new policies”, commented CESI Youth Representative, Matthäus Fandrejewski.

Valentina Viviani, CESI Youth Vice-President, continued “it is not enough to have an employment offer, we need to guarantee quality standards and fight precarious employment, which mostly affects younger generations, as well as ensuring their access to social protection schemes”.

For the upcoming months CESI Youth will continue focus its work on youth employment and quality of opportunities, access to social protection schemes by younger generations and the EU Green Deal. Furthermore, CESI Youth is preparing its motions for the upcoming CESI Congress, whose central theme will be “30 years of commitment. Now more than ever.”

“We have challenging times ahead, but we are committed to continue protecting young workers”, concluded Mätthaus Fandrejewski.

Naturally, the implications of the current health and economic crisis on the execution of the Congress lay in the centre of the exchanges and debates. The Presidium and Board decided that the Congress, which delegates will be able to participate in digitally in case the epidemiological situation does not allow otherwise, will take place under the theme ‘30 years of commitment. Now more than ever.’ in order to pay tribute to CESI’ foundation as a markedly pro-European trade union umbrella organisation in 1990 and need to take forward the organisation’s successful fight for decent work and strong trade unionism in today’s situation more than ever before.

“Since CESI’s foundation in 1990, our societies and labour markets have faced enormous transformations, which have recently, -in the form of digitalisation, increasing labour mobility and the rise of new forms of employment-, been gaining even more in speed.

Especially in the past months during the health and economic Covid crisis, which acted as a further real accelerator in this regard, we have witnessed how tangibly essential and indispensable trade unions remain to safeguard labour rights, social protection and interest representation for workers, both in the public and in the private sector. With 30 years of commitment, CESI continues to be independent, inclusive, different. Now more than ever!”, Secretary General Klaus Heeger said.

In this context, the Presidium and Board decided that the Congress should, next to the election of the CESI leadership for the next four years, also see the adoption of an overarching motion to pave the way for a continued strong and independent trade unionism in Europe, based on the objective to safeguard decent work and access to adequate social protection that appeals to civil servants, public sector workers and private sector employees like. Secretary General Klaus Heeger added: “We want to highlight that CESI also stands in particular for social cohesion, fairness, and equal opportunities in Europe. Next to upward social convergence in the EU, this means also strong local, national and European public services that can protect our societies in times of crises, especially its most vulnerable members that cannot buy-in substitute private services. This is a matter that the recent months have shown us very bluntly once again.”

The European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung invite you to the next CESI@noon on

Covid-19 and the future of work: What lessons for interest representation and trade unions?

Wednesday, October 7 2020; 11.30 to 12.30
online (via Zoom)

Registration

At a speed that was hardly imaginable before, the COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed already ongoing changes in labour markets, employment relationships and working conditions.

Mobile and home working became the new norm from one day to another, making it necessary to cope with, adjust to, and proactively shape changes in an even more urgent manner.

What are the lessons so far from COVID-19 for trade unions and trade unionism? How have unions fared so far? How can they embrace and actively shape the consequences of the pandemic in terms of digitalisation, ecological transitions and mobile and home working even more?

Do the consequences of the last months highlight the trade union’s relevance their and attractiveness for workers? How do they need to review their services to respond to new labour market realities and potentially new workers expectations and needs?

Panelists

Gabriele Bischoff, MdEP, European Parliament, Committee on Employment and Social Affairs
Javier Jordán de Urríes Sagarna, Justice Sector President, Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union (CSIF)
Ricardo Rodriguez, Research Officer, European Foundation of the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)
Denis Pennel, Managing Director, World Employment Confederation (WEC)

Moderators: Klaus Heeger, Secretary General, CESI; Birgit Wintermann, Programme Manager ‘Business in Society’, Bertelsmann Stiftung

CESI and its members have been underlining for years that better quality and a focus on a better reputation of VET is needed allover Europe as it can play an important role in keeping youth unemployment at bay and in giving young people the opportunity to access quality jobs.

Translated in trade-union’s words, this means also that the status and working conditions of VET teachers should be improved, especially in these past difficult times. VET has particularly suffered from the switch to remote learning and teaching, very hard to apply when it comes to practical classes on the workplace during the pandemic.

Stefan Nowatschin, CESI’s Spokesperson for VET, on the future Osnabrück Declaration, which is to be adopted by the EU Council on November 30: “It is very important that the new multiannual financial framework of the EU does not foresee cuts, but investment in the area of VET – so fundamentally crucial for the European labour market and the future of our youth.”

Also in his function as Deputy Federal Chairman of the German Trade union BvLB (Federal Association of Teachers for Vocational Education and Training), Nowatschin has been working for years to develop vocational training based on the sustainability goals of the United Nations, and also manages a European vocational training network project gathering vocational schools, universities and other vocational training experts in several EU countries.

“If we want to finally tackle the problem of youth unemployment – which is currently not getting any better in the Corona crisis – under control, we have to establish high quality vocational training in Europe in a networked and strategic manner”, Nowatschin said. “Digitalisation and sustainability are the core issues that we have to adjust to across Europe, and for which a joint development and funding strategy is needed.”

The Osnabrück Declaration intends to establish concrete measures to strengthen VET, and to improve the valorisation of VET among young people, workers, political decision-makers and the general public – hence paving the way to VET being a full-fledged pillar in the European Education Area 2025.

This year´s World Patient Safety Day is dedicated to the enormous efforts and commitments that healthcare have shown throughout the global pandemic.

As the 2020 Corona pandemic revealed the fundamental societal importance of functioning healthcare systems and competent, dedicated and committed workforce, this year´s Patient Safety Day pays particular tribute to the men and women fighting the virus at the forefront.

COVID-19 brought our health systems and the workforce to its limits. The doctors, nurses and hospital administration staff are at constant risk of own infection and are the truly indispensable ones who deserve extra respect and thankfulness.

Having already faced increasing work density and overtime in normal times, their working conditions have in many cases now become almost unbearable. The crisis also shows that in the future considerable investments will be needed to bring the resilience of health systems to a higher level. This concerns equipment, facilities, staff levels and employment conditions.

The President of CESI Trade Council Health, Spanish Nurse Esther Reyes, underlined that “patient safety is directly linked to the number of staff workers responsible for patients – especially doctors and nurses. Therefore, we need to hire sufficient workers in our sector, and we need to provide good working conditions, appropriate safety and health provisions at the workplace and not least fair remuneration. This is just an expression of societal value, respect and recognition – beyond clapping.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) created the Patient Safety Day in 2019 to strengthen the resilience of public health systems and to highlight the need for adequate investment. “Now it is time to move from words to deeds”, Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of CESI, declared. “We have been upholding for many, many years now that public expenditure, especially in the healthcare sector, cannot be simply regarded as a cost. It is an investment – an investment in our future.”

This Patient Safety Day, CESI hopes that everyone, together with us, will “Speak up for health care worker safety” !

CESI Presidium Position Paper on the COVID-19 Pandemic

CESI Presidium Position Paper on the Priorities for More Resilience

Today´s Ursula von der Leyen´s speech highlighted the current challenges and the strategies and priorities for the year ahead. COVID-19, green and digital transformations, migration and the rule of law are the topics to dominate in the next months in the European policy-making. The State of the European Union Debate reflects on the progresses made and the challenges and priorities ahead for the following year.

In her speech she proposed actions and strategies for the year to come, notably:

• establishing more competence for the EU on the health dimension and the need to make EU4Health future-proof as well as strengthening crisis preparedness;
• tackling dumping wages and bringing forward a legal proposal for a European minimum wage framework, where collective bargaining should be prioritized;

• guaranteeing stability within the single market, with a fully functioning Schengen Area;
• cutting down greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, with strong investment in green policies, a price on carbon and the proposal Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism;
• promoting a digital Europe by investing 20% of the Next Generation EU funding programme in Digital EU and introducing an effective digital tax;
• setting up a new ‘Bauhaus’ – a creative space for artists, architects, students, engineers and designers can work together;
• insisting on the respect of the rule of law and human rights and collaborating with those who are Europe´s ‘like-minded’ partners;
• to heal the scars of the migration crisis between member states the European Commission will propose a new pact on migration;
• effectively tackling hate crime and speech and strengthen equality between all citizens and familial relationships across all member states.

CESI Secretary-General, Klaus Heeger: “Ms von der Leyen’s words are bold, but so were those of last year, and those of her predecessors. Yes, I share her view that in the crisis, Europe has revealed its hidden force, but now we expect nothing less but these words to be met with corresponding actions. That means legislation, for instance hard and effective EU legislation for a framework on minimum wages; money, that is to say to tie EU funds and public procurement effectively to strong social and environmental criteria; and not least politics, that is to say a real commitment by all actors to cross-border solidarity and inclusion. An inclusion which, by the way, should also apply to the European social dialogues”

Romain Wolff, CESI President, added underlining the urgency of a socially fair and sustainable recovery with performing and resilient public services at its core: “The COVID-19 health crisis showed us the need to have performing and resilient public services. CESI has always upheld that investing in public services means investing in our societies and in the future. And of course, we need a level playing field in terms of taxation in this sense, we are urging for efficient and fair taxation of the digital economy and the financial sector.”

CESI Resolution: Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027

CESI Presidium Position Paper on Future of work – A trade union perspective: Social protection, decent employment & interest representation

CESI Presidium Position Paper COVID-19 Pandemic – Priorities for more resilience

Existing since 2000, EU-OSHA’s Healthy workplaces campaigns typically run for two years and are backed by the EU institutions and social partners such as CESI. At the national level, they are coordinated by a network of focal points of EU-OSHA. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the risks posed by work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) and to inform about how to tackle and prevent them. The specific objectives are:

• raise awareness of work-related MSDs
• promote risk assessment and management of MSDs
• demonstrate that MSDs are an issue for everyone – in all types of workplaces and sectors
• improve knowledge of new and emerging risks in relation to MSDs
• emphasise the need to reintegrate and retain workers with chronic MSDs and how this can be done
• encourage the exchange of information and good practices among relevant stakeholders.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “As a trade union confederation, CESI has for long worked to promote adequate health and safety measures for all workers. This concerns not only the management of occupational psychosocial risks or dangerous substances, but especially also the handling of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). At CESI, we believe that this Healthy Workplaces Campaign edition brings to the front an occupational hazard that is still underestimated, despite being a more and more common cause of disability, leave and early retirement – both among blue-collar and office workers.”

CESI will contribute to the success of the campaign by reaching out to -and working with- its extensive union network across Europe to raise awareness for a more preventative and effective curative handling of work-related MSDs, including through collective agreements.

More information about CESI’s involvement in the 2018-19 Healthy Workplaces Campaign is available here.

[Logos: EU-OSHA 2020]

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Consequences of Covid-19 for the education sector have indeed been particularly dramatic. Most teachers were neither equipped with mobile work devices nor work e-mail addresses and had to make use of their private devices.

Professional, functioning and efficient digital communication structures and platforms –between pupils and teachers, between headmasters and teachers, as well as among teachers themselves– had or have still to be set up. Moreover, concepts for digital teaching and learning were missing almost everywhere.”

In its statement, CESI consequently called for:

• boosted public investment in education to support digital infrastructure and connectivity and access to IT tools and internet for all students and teachers – as a basic and technical prerequisite for high-quality remote teaching and learning that may still be necessary in the foreseeable future in many places in Europe.

• guaranteed high-quality and inclusive training and lifelong learning for teachers and trainers in necessary digital skills, to be delivered during the working time

• constructive dialogue among all actors and stakeholders in the sector (schools, teachers, students, families, trade-unions) and systematic exchanges of best practices on how to better shape digital education, to the mutual benefit and advantage of all

Klaus Heeger added: “At the same time, face-to-face learning must remain at the centre as much as possible, as the ‘human factor’ in education is essential for effective and successful learning.”

CESI consequently also called for the development of digital learning and teaching tools and methods complementary to school-based and face-to-face learning as a key priority for an updated EU Digital Education Action Plan.

More information about the consultation is available on the European Commission’s website. CESI’s full consultation statement is available here.

In its statement, CESI:

• affirms that wages are best determined through collective agreements but that a statutory minimum wage can have a positive, supportive effect: Measures by the European Commission to encourage an increase in the scope of the coverage of collective agreements in the workforce, in combination with the need to at least match a given statutory minimum wage level, could increase the prospect of decent wages in low-paid sectors. Ambitious minimum wage floors can also increase positive pressure to raise the general wage level.

• advocates tying public tender awards effectively to the social clause of the Public procurement directive. Given the large monetary volumes that governments and authorities spend on public tenders, governed by binding EU minimum standards, this would represent a strong incentive and almost de-facto requirement for many companies and firms to pay minimum wages.

• Indeed, also in cases of subcontracting, a general undertaking liability for minimum wages would be a highly forceful tool to counter abusive employment conditions.
• calls, in order to set minimum wages at “adequate” levels, for the benchmark to consider as a minimum standard to follow the spirit of the commonly accepted ‘at-risk-of-poverty’ threshold rate and be set, correspondingly, to at least 60% of the national full-time median wage equivalent. Gross minimum wages should be pursued rather than net wages in order to avoid complicated and case-by-case calculations to determine the taxation and social security contributions to be deducted from gross earnings in order to arrive at net minimum wages. At the same time, to ensure that in all cases the fixed gross minimum full-time wage equivalents also allow for a decent real-world standard of living, country-specific baskets of representative goods and services should be established and applied to adjust the minimum wage upward, if required.
• affirms that eliminating existing loopholes and exemptions among de facto dependent workers, or at least reducing to them to a bare necessary minimum (e.g. for mandatory short-term education degree-related internships), must be a central deliverable of a new EU minimum wage framework. According to CESI, the EU minimum wage framework should apply also especially to the vulnerable solo self-employed, in order to decrease precariousness in the frame of their economic activity. In this context, minimum wages for the vulnerable solo self-employed should go hand in hand with the current initiative of the European Commission to give them the right to collective bargaining.
• stresses that the framework should also apply to the public sector. However, it should be sensitive to the situation of civil servants that are falling under the so-called alimentation principle, like for instance in Germany. As the German Federal Constitutional Court has specified, “the principle of alimentation imposes the obligation on the state (Dienstherr) to appropriately support civil servants and their families as well as to grant them an appropriate maintenance according to the development of the economic and financial situation as well as the general standard of living.”
• call for all social partners to be considered in the whole minimum wage setting, monitoring and updating procedures and processes.
• stresses that an EU minimum wage framework must make binding provisions for the Member States and not be restricted to mere recommendations.

More information about the consultation is available on the European Commission’s website.

CESI’s full consultation statement is available here.

Why to choose November 4th as the day to draw attention to the gender pay gap? The answer is very unfortunate: taking into consideration the current pay gap, women in Europe will work for free from this day until the end of the year.

The gender pay gap in the European Union is , on average, approximately 15%. In light of the current coronavirus pandemic, it is expected that this gap will widen, since women, who are overrepresented in precarious forms of work, are amongst those most hardly hit by the health and economic crisis.

CESI, as an organisation which puts gender equality at its heart – also beyond occupational aspects –, highlights the continued importance of achieving gender economic equality to empower women. In order to do so, CESI calls the EU institutions to deliver an efficient Pay Transparency Directive as soon as possible, fundamental to help bring about pay equality between men and women and thus to ensure equal treatment between women and men at the workplace.

CESI expects such a directive to set ambitious and binding standards for pay transparency which should be generally applicable to all employees and effective sanctions for those Member States who do not implement or enforce the directive.

Initiatives such as this one, on pay transparency, go hand in hand with other directives which are very important to close the pay, career and pension gaps, notably the EU’s Work-life Directive (which is now in its transposition phase in the member-states) and the Women on Boards Directive (which is, unfortunately, still in the negotiation phase and continues to be blocked by the Council).

It is important to raise awareness to this, so our societies can elevate the roles women play, since the gender pay gap is also a direct consequence of unpaid care and domestic work, which mostly falls on women.

To discuss these issues and more, CESI Secretary General, Klaus Heeger, recently hosted a conversation with the chairwoman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, MEP Evelyn Regner. Watch the full conversation here.

Our member MKKSZ (Trade Union of Hungarian Civil Servants and Public Employees) protests against the austerity measures that will put the jobs of thousands of employees on the line. The austerity measures will force local councils to fire people.

Read more at:

https://dailynewshungary.com/public-employee-union-calls-strike/

https://www.mkksz.org.hu/

Below the message of CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger.

In a position paper on Future of work – A trade union perspective: Social protection, decent employment & interest representation, CESI had already advocated to allow, where this is not yet the case, the right of association especially for the precarious and vulnerable self-employed, regardless of the economic sector, and to explicitly allow them to become trade union members.

So far, this is not always granted on grounds that there may be cartel-forming through joint wage negotiations which is not in line with EU competition law and the integrity of the single market (article 1010 TFEU).

In its consultation contribution, CESI issued the following priorities:

• A general prohibition of collective bargaining for the self-employed via trade unions on the grounds that there may be cartel-forming through joint wage negotiations which is not in line with EU competition law and the integrity of the single market (article 1010 TFEU) is a misplaced contextualisation of EU law, especially when it is applied to vulnerable and precarious self-employed persons, -these working particularly often in solo self-employment-, as the cost of services is determined by many factors beyond wages too.

• Here, the establishment and preservation of collective ‘wage’-bargaining powers are legitimate to guarantee a general balance of powers and interests between all actors involved, i.e. the service provider the service taker, and, given the case, the intermediate (such as platforms), and to avoid that those concerned are excessively sold out by market powers and forced to provide work for indecently low wage levels. It is therefore of major importance to allow and strengthen the collective labour rights especially of the precarious and vulnerable self-employed.

• An extension of the right to collective bargaining especially to the precarious and vulnerable the self-employed would be appropriate. Such a right collective bargaining must be embedded in a four-tier approach which gives the concerned self-employed (1) the right to join trade unions, (2) the right to collective bargaining, (3) the right to become a part of collective agreements, and thus (4) also the right to industrial action. The mere right to collective bargaining on paper will not bring advantages; only by considering the above complete set of four elements may the right to collective bargaining be organised and enforced in practice and bring a concrete improvements for the self-employed.

• This initiative should not be aimed at the bogus self-employed, which by definition work in exploitative and precarious conditions as they are denied regular employee contracts because employers want to avoid higher social ‘costs’. This would be treating symptoms, not tackling roots. Bogus self-employed are, as the term reveals, false self-employed and de facto employees. What is necessary here is to ensure that they are considered as such with all consequences (regular individual and collective labour law and rights and social security schemes applied to them), thus eliminating bogus self-employment in the first place – an issue for the legislators to ensure clear legal frameworks and for (well-staffed and resourced) labour inspectorates to control their application and issue (deterring) sanctions for violations.

Full CESI consultation statement
Further information on the European Commission’s consultation on a Digital Services Act

On the United Nations International Youth Day, CESI Youth highlights the difficult situation young people are facing in light of the current economic crisis driven by the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Economic downturns tend to be particularly hard for the vulnerable groups in our society, such as young people. The COVID-19 economic crisis is proving to be no different, with 16.8% of youth unemployment rate in the EU (June 2020 – EUROSTAT data).

Furthermore, young people tend to be employed in retail and tourism sectors, two of the most affected by the economic crisis. This is particularly worrying for those who use their summer break to work and use those savings for the next academic year. In addition, young people tend to be over represented in the gig economy and in atypical working contracts, limiting their access to social protection measures. This culminates in young people being the most affected in terms of mental health by the COVID-19 health crisis.

To tackle this problems, the European Commission issued a proposal for a Reinforced Youth Guarantee, as well as a modern apprenticeship policy and skills agenda. This new proposal positively extends the age group from under 25 to under 29 and distinguishes between long and short-term NEET’s. However, the proposal could have gone a bit further in guaranteeing quality standards for education, internships and apprenticeships.

CESI Youth hopes on this International Youth Day to raise awareness to the need to prevent youth unemployment rates like those witnessed in the last global financial crisis, especially in Southern Europe, as well as the need the ensure quality offers and paid internships.

Young people, especially from vulnerable backgrounds and minorities, cannot be left behind. The coronavirus recovery has to be socially inclusive, with strong public services at its core.

Watch the full conference Preventing a Lost Generation 2.0 in following here.

Consult CESI statement on an ad-hoc EU social partner consultation on a reinforced Youth Guarantee here.

Consult CESI Youth article on Youth Employment and COVID19 here.

Precarious working contracts have been expanding in the recent years, especially after the last global financial crisis. They are no longer an issue associated only with less skilled workers, and they are ever more present in the public sector too. As atypical work contracts are slowly becoming more and more of a new normal, it is more important than ever to address this pressing issue.

This webinar is hosted by Prof. Dr. Aurora Trif, Associate Professor at the Dublin City University and specialised in comparative employment relations, and features input by Ashling Seely, PhD student at Dublin City University, who is experienced in precarious work in the public sector.

Together they provide specific examples on how trade unions can take a pragmatic and proactive approach to tackle precarious working conditions.

They identify the following precarity dimensions: high job insecurity, low or uncertain income, irregular/uncertain working hours, lack of social benefits and lack of union representation. Against this background, Prof. Trif argues that trade unions should engage not only their members but the employers as well, and promote a win-win discourse. They should also strengthen horizontal and vertical links within the internal structure of the union, offer individual services and legal support, and use their external links and engage internationally.

Prof. Trif concludes that is vital for trade unions to reach out to precarious workers, not only to prevent the expansion of precarity, but also to increase their membership and ensure the maintenance and relevance of the unions in the future.

To watch the webinar please visit this link.

To find out more about this topic visit the No Precarious Work website.

Consult CESI’s position paper Future of work – A trade union perspective: Social protection, decent employment & interest representation here.

This project is mainly financed by funds from the European Union.

The 2 winners:
• European federalists that have tirelessly advocated a mechanism for the EU to raise a significant share of the budget by itself (own resources as opposed to, almost exclusively, Member State contributions) and to take loans on behalf of all Member States: Already in January 2021 new own resources through a levy on non-recyclable plastics will be put in place, followed by a carbon border adjustment mechanism and a digital tax as from January 2023. And the introduction of Corona bonds, even if they are of limited size and duration, opens precedence for permanent Euro bonds at some point in the future.

• Italy and friends: They receive 390 billion Euros of direct aid from the EU which they do not need to repay. It is less than they had hoped for and less than the European Commission and Germany and France had had in mind too, but it is still very much more than o€ that the Frugals had wanted and represents indeed a very significant amount of money. Not to forget the additional 360 of loans that they will receive on very favourable terms.

The loser:
• Non-Corona related EU programmes: Many EU programmes, most of the innovation- and investment-oriented and so far success stories, lost out to Corona recovery and were proposed by the Member State leaders to be significantly cropped: The MFF heading 1, which includes the EU’s flagship research programme Horizon and other programmes such as the InvestEU programme or the Connecting Europe facility would, for instance, be reduced from 210 billion to 132 billion. But also other headings would lose out: Heading 4 on migration and border management would be reduced from 31 billion to 23 billion, heading 5 on security and defence from 29 to 13 billion, and heading 6 on the neighbourhood and internal development from 118 to 98 billion. It will be up to the European Parliament to put up a fight with the Member States in upcoming negotiations in order to raise the figures at least somewhat from the level that the Member State leaders have in mind. As CESI, we would certainly welcome if the programmes aimed at social fairness, digitalisation and environmental protection would be strengthened.

2 winners and losers TBD during the next months:
• The Frugals: While they were not able to prevent non-repayable Corona bonds, they did manage to bring down the direct aid share from 500 down to 390 euros. This makes them neither a loser nor a winner. A core issue for them will however only be decided later: Control over how Corona bonds will be spent by the Member States. While the Frugals, the Netherlands in particular, had wanted veto power over the dispersion of financial resources, what they got was a right to table worries about the reform progress in the individual Member States to the European Council, which will then “discuss” the matter and until which point the dispersion of money to the Member State in question will be frozen. This begs the questions: What happens after or as a result of the “discussion”? EU leaders remained silent about this in their conclusions today. We will only know later how easily the Frugals will deploy their right and what the ultimate consequences will be.

• Friends of the rule of law and liberal democracy: A key element in the European Commission’s MFF proposal, -the requirement of a qualified majority in the Council to override a European Commission decision to freeze EU funding for the Member States if it finds that the rule of law and liberal democracy is no longer maintained- fell victim to unanimity bargaining during the European Council. What remains is a clause to task the European Commission to propose a rule of law mechanism which will then be voted on by the qualified majority in the Council. This means: The introduction of a strong rule of law conditionality in the next MFF will likely depend on the success or failure of Viktor Orbán and the Polish government to organise a blocking minority on this in the Council. As CESI, we have stood by a strong rule of law mechanism and will continue to raise our voice in favour of it.

In any case, what, not least, remains from the summit is that 27 Member States were able to reach a compromise that could always be better and that includes the unknown variable of a strong rule of law instrument – but that also contains ground-breaking new funding mechanisms will likely contribute to the EU’s internal cohesion in the long term.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “Violence at work is a recurrent problem that many of our trade union affiliates experience. This includes workers in central government administrations but extends to employees in other fields of the public sector, including police staff, teachers and health care personnel. The guidelines are an important step to equip our members with tools to address and, ideally, prevent violence against them in the first place.”

As underlined in today’s joint statement of the social partners, the Guidelines are a crucial instrument to support workers’ right to a safe and healthy workplace, in line with the EU’s Framework Directive on occupational safety and health (OSH) the European Pillar of Social Rights, on a global level, the recently adopted ILO Convention 190 on Violence and Harassment.

The guidelines are still very much needed: despite a progressive increase of awareness and procedures available against violence and harassment at work, an increase of third-party violence and harassment at work has been reported in several sectors and the EU Member States and a lack of reporting and data is still to deplore, meaning that dark figures may likely be even higher than expected. As an important tool to counter this, these Guidelines should, therefore, be further spread and promoted at EU and especially at the national level, thus reaching the workers on the ground – the real or potential victims of aggressive behaviour, be it verbal, physical or psychological.

This is why it is crucial for social partners at EU and national level to join forces to keep this topic high on the agenda, not least against the background of the current Covid-19 crisis, which many professionals have gone through as praised by society as “heroes” while it has happened that they were attacked, even violently, as “virus spreaders” by some at the same time.

Given the importance of the violence at work, CESI has also been carrying out, throughout the last and this current year, a project to prevent and tackle third-party violence against public sector workers. This gave birth to an EU-wide awareness-raising campaign on third-party violence and the role of trade-unions in preventing violence and harassment at work, as well as accompanying workers as victims of aggressive behaviour. CESI’s campaign, entitled “Independent trade-unions gather for zero tolerance against violence. Let’s end third-party violence at work.” will be launched at EU and national level later this year.

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#bleiftdoheem[1]

How suddenly the world can change in the blink of an eye. From one day to the next, we are all staying in and sitting at home. Nothing is the same. Prime Minister Bettel declares via video link a national state of emergency and the general slogan is now (including with modern hashtags): #stayhome.

But is everyone staying at home? No, far from it! Crises such as COVID-19 clearly reveal which actors are indispensable for the whole of society, as well as those that can be dispensed with, at least temporarily, if needs be. We would like to extend our gratitude and pay tribute to the frontline workers from the public and private sectors.

Now that the crisis is abating, we should not forget to give these people a round of applause, at least inwardly. This particularly applies when once again we, caught up in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, rush past the supermarket cashier without paying much attention.

Debate on the new normal

Within our affluent society, with material security for many, we often succumb to the false conclusion that life is safe. COVID-19 has shown us quite the opposite; it has shown us rather brutally how vulnerable we are individually and, moreover, collectively. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic is a crisis affecting us that is natural in origin; it is not the deliberate product of a particular policy. COVID-19 seems to be fortuitous, an accident that has stripped us of our ‘normality’.

Does this pandemic have the power to bring about sustainable change in our social and political world? Before the outbreak of COVID-19, many people agreed that ‘things cannot go on like this’. Environment and transport are just two key words here. And so, it would appear to be a question of avoiding the ‘old normal’ in the first place. Are we brave enough to conduct an open debate about a ‘new normal’ in society?

Goodbye to no political alternatives?

There is no denying that since March a great deal became possible within a few weeks: colossal state interventions worth billions; vocal criticism of the cuts made to health and social systems; corporate interests suddenly mattered less than the well-being of the population. This is rather unusual because it is at odds with the neo-liberal political ductus of ‘there is no alternative’ that has been preached since the 1980s. There is an alternative, it would appear. It is possible and even necessary to act differently from the way we have been doing over the last thirty years.

Paradoxically, according to Jacques Ranciére, the French political philosopher, what we are witnessing in the COVID-19 crisis is the return of politics. As he defines it, ‘politics’ is precisely what happens when we fundamentally question our present and the course of things.

Politics is often irrelevant

But is that really the case? Are we currently seeing a move away from the old logic of ‘faster, higher, further’? Are we ready to reflect on how we are living, or do we actually want to have no choice but to lose ourselves in endless consumer battles?

COVID-19 has shown clearly that politics can work if it wants to. Elected representatives of the people have, de facto, the power to shape all our lives for the benefit of all, preferably with the involvement of all minorities in this process. Political parties in particular like to put their light under this bushel and pretend to want to shape or be able to shape things. The political will to shape things may be great at times, but the truth is that the possibility of making a real difference is actually rather limited, especially against the backdrop of international political paradigms. We citizens therefore know that politics is often irrelevant, and that the representatives of the people spout hot air and do not deliver. Many of us no longer feel that we are being represented adequately. Not even because our politicians are useless, but rather because the fundamental things are decided elsewhere.

CETA ratification, an infamous example

In our country, the recent ratification of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada by the Luxembourg Parliament is a clear example of meaningless, powerless, i.e. ignorant political action.

Globalizing trade agreements have become a political system over the years and now form a global network of tentacles that primarily seeks to prevent collapses, such as the one we are now seeing with COVID-19. ‘The market will fix it’ is the motto here. Trade agreements are globalization in real time and, moreover, shamelessly expand the power of international corporations across the globe, where private interests often come before public interests. In Luxembourg, nearly all of civil society took to the streets on numerous occasions against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and CETA. Resistance is thus already on the streets.

But what really went on in Luxembourg politically? This topic of extreme complexity from a legal perspective was not given any real substantive consideration. The general approach applied here was: keep a low profile, shut your eyes and hope for the best! Increasingly, specific concerns of citizens are being decided within dubious international procedures, without any prior consultation in Parliament. Although, from a purely legal point of view, competence lies with the National Parliament, our parliamentarians are being downgraded to secondary roles.

Political action is powerless because, not least as a citizen, you are tilting at windmills. But even parliamentarians themselves, especially if they are on the side of the governing parties, are also subject to party discipline. A negative vote cannot and must not be reported to Brussels, otherwise the whole Treaty will collapse. In the long run, we citizens are therefore largely condemned to a future that we do not want. The national political parties feel this sense of powerlessness all too well. They are reluctant to admit this, seeing as though it is almost tantamount to filing for bankruptcy. In addition, there is a danger that fewer and fewer people will become involved in party politics because political activity, especially at the national level, will sooner or later be conducted ad absurdum.

What was particularly striking, however, was the overwhelming ignorance on the part of Luxembourg’s politicians to rush this controversial agreement through Parliament by any means whatsoever, despite the state of emergency and the significantly limited right to demonstrate.

If we voters are to take our political representatives even half-seriously, we need to have confidence in their willingness to stand up for our common good. If, as has now happened, the majority of politicians no longer even seem to care about our concerns, then we really have reached a new low. The unease, no, the sense of powerlessness stemming from the fact that as a citizen you are virtually defenceless in the face of the interests of large corporations, for example, is shaking, in my view, the very foundations of our liberal system.

#Neistart Lëtzebuerg[2]

Before we all have even had a chance to fully grasp the implications of the pandemic, the Government is already rebooting the country as if they were pressing a button on a computer (Ctrl + Alt + Delete). Reminiscent of Jeremy Rifkin: structural change and digitalization are now apparently being rolled out in one go along with COVID-19. But not everything is all that bad about a pandemic like this one. Everyone, if it somehow fits the cause, does what they can to ensure they do not lose their seat on the gravy train.

Even before COVID-19, many citizens already felt that we needed a different way of living together. In the meantime, many people have come to realize that it is actually possible to get through everyday life with less stress. People finally had time for the essential things in life, children, relationships, themselves. Some may even be wondering: ‘Why do I bother going along with it all?’

Collectively, we can all sense that we are living in a time in which real change is unfolding. The dynamic transformations of our time are occurring at a galloping pace, many people can no longer keep up. Anxiety disorders, burnout and depression have become common ailments. Change happens repeatedly and imperceptibly over the course of decades, but sometimes within hours. We now know what that feels like ever since COVID-19.

In our globalised world, we as a human race are facing tremendous challenges, all of which now seem to determine our daily lives even faster. Many areas of public and private life will continue to change fundamentally. This bodes well for extremists with quick fixes wishing to score points with the population.

All life matters! Inclusion is the key word of our time. Change, after all, also brings with it the opportunity to make many positive improvements. This is something that we should all have a share in as a society, there is still a lot that needs to be done after all. Will we succeed? Will we be asked? Only time will tell.

[1] Luxembourgish: #stayhome

[2] Luxembourgish: #NewstartLuxembourg

CESI Insides – A conversation about public services, employment, social affairs and taxation in European Union with CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger and CESI President Romain Wolff.

#CESIinsides #PublicServices #Employment #CESI #COVID19 #TradeUnions #Workers

oung people tend to be disproportionately hit during economic downturns. To face these challenges, the European Commission presented an employment package called an EU Bridge to Jobs. It consists of a proposal for the mentioned Council Recommendation on a Reinforced Youth Guarantee and on Vocational Education and Training, combined with a Skills Agenda focusing on strengthening digital skills fit for the green economy. It amounts to 22bn EUR.

The Youth Guarantee was firstly introduced in 2013 to address the rising levels of youth unemployment, especially in Southern Europe. In the new proposal, the age group to which it applies has been extended to young people up to 29 years old. The Commission also proposes to distinguish between short-term and long-term NEET’s (not in employment, education or training).

proposal also aims to be more inclusive and to raise awareness for the particularly difficult situation of vulnerable groups.

To find out more about this package, visit the following page.

The joint conference of CESI Youth, StartNet and the European Youth Forum ‘Preventing a Lost Generation 2.0 – Does the Reinforced EU Youth Guarantee respond to the challenges facing young people?’ started with a keynote speech by Commissioner from Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, and was followed by interventions of MEP Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, Eurofound´s Head of Unit Massimiliano Mascherini, and representatives from CESI Youth, StartNet and the European Youth Forum.

Nicolas Schmit remembered that the difficulties in accessing the labour market can damage the rest of someone’s career, therefore waiting for better days is not an option and recognized the need to take collective solutions in due time. Schmit also noticed the importance of investing in public employment services, which are in the end ‘delivering’ the Youth Guarantee. MEP Peter-Hansen reminded that young people have the same rights as older generations and need high quality learning experiences. She supports hard legislation regarding youth employment, for example by banning unpaid internships. Massimiliano Mascherini underlined that young people are already being hardly hit by the coronavirus led economic crisis, and are most affected by it in terms of mental health. Regardless of these negative consequences, young people still have major trust in the EU, and it is therefore of utmost importance to not leave young people behind.

CESI Youth Representative Matthäus Fandrejewski underlined that CESI Youth had strongly welcomed the Commission’s proposal EU Bridge to Jobs to prevent rising unemployment levels among younger generations, as it was seen during the last global financial crisis. “I would like to highlight the extension of the age to which the Youth Guarantee applies, given that transition to work happens later and a lot of people older than 25 years old are still studying. This is something that CESI Youth has been advocating for some time now”, he stated. CESI Youth has also always insisted that young people must have the right to quality jobs, since they tend be employed in atypical and precarious working contract and in sectors which are particularly hit by the crisis. Strengthening and easing the access of young people to social protection schemes will also be key in the future. “The new reinforced Youth Guarantee needs to focus more on the creation of real jobs for the young people and should not continue the marathon of traineeships co-financed by public money”, underlines Matthäus.

Trade Unions have to play a key role together with national youth councils, youth organizations and political stakeholders in the designing of the youth guarantee programs.

“There is still work to be done to guarantee sufficient quality jobs, internships and apprenticeships. It is worth reminding everyone that young people are overrepresented in atypical and precarious work schemes; this poses a threat to their financial independence and to their access to social protection”, Matthäus Fandrejewski concluded.

To watch the full conference please visit the following link.

Consult CESI statement on an ad-hoc EU social partner consultation on a reinforced Youth Guarantee here.

Consult CESI Youth article on Youth Employment and COVID19 here.

Consult CESI’s position paper on the Future of Work here.