Labour
Ahead of France’s legislative elections, unions and employers make their voices heard
Est. 5minAhead of the legislative elections on 30 June and 7 July, French trade unions are divided over what strategy to adopt in the face of the rise of the far-right Rassemblement National (RN), while major employers seem wary of the promises made by the left and the right.
Workers’ safety is part of EU competitiveness story, says IndustriAll chief
Est. 7minEurope must create high-road debate around competitiveness and improve workers’ conditions rather than just discussing cutting costs, says Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary at trade union IndustriAll Europe.
European leather sector sees workers’ safety gains, carbon footprint reduction
Est. 6minAccidents in Europe’s leather sector have decreased in recent years, while new methodologies to assess its lifecycle carbon footprint is helping the industry in its green transition.
German Chancellor Scholz, unions hit back at calls for longer working hours, pension reform
Est. 3minOn International Workers’ Day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) and trade union representatives have voiced opposition to calls by business leaders and pro-business parties for longer working hours and to increase the retirement age.
Bolt lobbying revelations: Estonia official says human error behind missing correspondence
Est. 4minThe omission of emails from the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs to Bolt and other mobility tech firms, demanded in a freedom of information (FOI) request, was due to human error, the Ministry's Deputy Secretary General Sandra Särav told Estonian news agency ERR.
Gig-gling at last: EU adopts gig work directive
Est. 3minThe European Parliament overwhelmingly approved a watered-down version of the EU's long-awaited platform work directive at a plenary on Wednesday (24 April), ending two years of intense negotiations with 554 votes in favour and 56 against.
Germans must work more to boost weak economy, BDA, Deutsche Bank say
Est. 4minAs the long-term growth potential of the German economy has declined substantially over the past years and decades, longer working hours and later retirement were needed to increase growth, business leaders said on Tuesday (16 April).
Long subcontracting chains foster injustice, says ETUC leader
Est. 5minLong subcontracting chains lock workers out of rights, and lock injustices in, European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) General Secretary Esther Lynch said during a debate on abusive subcontracting practices in Europe.
Abusive subcontracting detrimental to all workers, says European trade workers’ union
Est. 9minWhen done abusively to cut costs and circumvent regulations, subcontracting is detrimental to both the subcontracted workers and local workforces who end up approaching the negotiating table from weaker positions, says a leading European trade unionist.
At long last, EU countries adopt the platform work directive
Est. 4minEU countries finally adopted the platform work directive at a meeting of EU labour ministers on Monday (11 March), after Estonia and Greece, which had abstained in the past, voted in favour “in the spirit of compromise”.
In last-minute upset, France pitches new changes to gig work file
Est. 4minAs EU ambassadors were due to meet on Friday (8 March) to try to agree again a provisional deal on the platform work directive, France circulated a set of changes it wants to make to the text, throwing another spanner in the works for the ill-starred file.
Germany hopes to stabilise pension system with €200 billion capital stock
Est. 5minThe German government hopes to secure the long-term financing of its pension system with a new capital stock of up to €200 billion, which should be invested in global markets and yield €10 billion annually starting from 2036.
New EU forced labour rules to crack down on exploitation in agri-food supply chains
Est. 5minEU negotiators reached a deal on Tuesday morning (5 March) on a new regulation aiming to ban products linked to forced labour from the bloc’s market, with potential implications for agricultural and food commodities produced in and outside the bloc.
Member states slam door shut on gig work directive
Est. 6minThe Belgian Presidency failed to garner the necessary support from member states to agree a new platform work directive on Friday (16 February), effectively shelving the proposal, after more than two years of negotiations.
Delivery failure: Belgium Presidency’s platform work directive undermines single market
Est. 4minThe latest agreement on the platform work directive brings less legal clarity than the status quo, and fails to give platforms and workers alike harmonised rules and protections across the EU's single market, Tomas Prouza writes for Euractiv.
Unions issue ‘urgent’ call for EU industrial policy to respect workers’ rights
Est. 5min“When we give vast amounts of taxpayers’ money to private industry, we should be ensuring they are creating quality jobs that make this collective investment worthwhile."
Platform work rulebook hangs by thread ahead of member states’ final nod
Est. 4minNegotiators from the European Commission, Council and Parliament struck a deal on the Platform Work Directive - for the second time - on Thursday (8 February), with all eyes now on member states, who have been asked to rubberstamp it on Friday.
Business leaders blame skills shortage for Europe’s industrial decline
Est. 5min“We have to make sure that we work on reindustrialisation before our history has disappeared, and that is really why we have to act now."
Belgium Presidency hopes for 11th-hour deal with watered-down platform work directive
Est. 4minFollowing failed interinstitutional negotiations over the platform work directive last week, the Belgium Presidency circulated yet another draft text, which significantly waters down the file’s flagship chapter on the legal presumption of employment.
Belgian presidency gives platform workers rulebook new try
Est. 4minThe Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU has circulated a new draft text of the platform work directive, which should be the basis for technical negotiations among member states on Tuesday (16 January), amid persistent divisions about the directive's scope.
France leads charge to rewrite platform workers’ rulebook
Est. 6minLast month, a coalition of EU countries blocked the provisional agreement on the Platform Workers Directive. But while the Belgian EU Council presidency wants to use the political deal as the starting point for future discussion, Paris wants a more comprehensive file reshaping.
Member states deal heavy blow to platform work deal
Est. 6minMember states’ ambassadors failed to find a majority over a platform work directive deal struck last week, dealing a heavy blow to the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU and raising concerns the file may not get through before the end of the mandate.
Macron may be ‘killer of Social Europe’, Platform Work Directive rapporteur warns
Est. 5minMember states must do everything to ensure the Platform Work Directive provisional deal is approved, Parliament file rapporteur Elisabetta Gualmini told Euractiv in an interview, warning that France’s refusal to vote on the text is “unacceptable”.
Immigration 101, for the attention of the French
Est. 10minWelcome to Euractiv’s weekly Economy Brief. You can subscribe to the newsletter here. France's political imbroglio over its immigration bill on Monday has resulted in an ambitious mechanism to grant one-year automatic visas to irregular workers being dropped. …