Trade unions call for concrete results

Date: 30/10/1997

EUROPE's trade unions insist that a booming and vibrant economy must not be achieved at the cost of reducing the basic employment rights of EU workers.

Emilio Gabaglio, general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), says most member states still seem more concerned with introducing the single currency on time than with creating a stable economic environment which will encourage job creation.

“The uncertainty surrounding the introduction of EMU and the resulting lack of confidence may depress growth. The summit must add an 'economic pillar' to the 'monetary pillar' by adopting an economic coordination pact to support the growth and stability pact,” he insists, referring to the requirement that countries which enter the single currency bloc will have to take steps to keep within tough Maastricht convergence criteria after they join.

Gabaglio argues that pursuing the sort of 'rounded' economic policy he describes could actually benefit not only the EU's workers but also its employers.

“Studies show that a lack of coordinated economic policy has led to a loss in growth. Employment considerations should be a part of economic policy,” he says.

For the summit to be a success, the ETUC feels it must set quantifiable targets for job creation. On this point he is likely to be disappointed, however. When the European Commission suggested recently that member states should commit themselves to creating a specific number of jobs over a set time frame, governments quickly poured cold water on the idea.

“I regret to say there was unwillingness by some ministers to set quantified, measurable objectives for implementing the employment guidelines. It was the same resistance the ETUC met before Amsterdam to its proposals for writing an employment title into the treaty,” said Gabaglio after a recent meeting with Europe's social affairs ministers.

One of the most important ways Europe will create new jobs, say the unions, is by reassessing national and EU rules on working time. To this end, Gabaglio warmly welcomes the French government's recent decision to introduce a 35-hour working week.

“The Jospin government's decisions are a welcome triumph for French trade unions and the European trade union movement generally. The employment guidelines set at the extraordinary summit must expressly include the reorganisation and reduction of working time as a main policy option for cutting joblessness,” he says.

On a Europe-wide level, the ETUC wants to see the Union's Working Time Directive revised so that the maximum working week is reduced from 48 to 44 hours. Given the problems member states had agreeing on the current legislation - which underwent a UK-backed challenge in the European Court of Justice - Gabaglio appears to stand little chance of getting his way on this.

Another area where the trade unions feel the EU could do better in its efforts to create jobs is by carrying out a radical overhaul of national taxation schemes. Gabaglio echoes Taxation Commissioner Mario Monti's view that the tax burden should be shifted away from employees and on to non-labour sources.

Whatever agreement finally emerges at the Luxembourg meeting, Gabaglio firmly believes that governments must come up with some concrete results from the summit or risk further damaging the EU's already tarnished public image. “I believe they know they have to deliver,” he warns.