Evrópusamband verkalýðsfélaga, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) hefur sent frá sér drög að "Nýjum félagslegum sáttmála  Evrópu". Þar er að finna greiningu og tillögur til úrbóta á efnahagskreppunni þar sem félagslegt réttlæti og áhersla á fjölgun starfa er þungamiðjan. Kennir ETUC 30 ára yfirráðatíma nýfrjálshyggjunnar um kreppuna, um aukinn efnahagslegan og samfélagslegan ójöfnuð, um fjölgun óvissra starfa, um samdrátt velferðarkerfisins og minnkandi réttinda verkafólks.  Beinir ETUC máli sínu ekki síst til hinna ýmsu stofnana ESB og gagnrýnir þær margar harðlega og hvetur til úrlausna sem láta ekki fjármálakreppuna lenda á herðum vinnandi fólks. Hinn nýi félagslegi sáttmáli var birtur á „Vinnumálaþingi" („Job Summit") sem haldið var í Prag í gær 7. maí. Upphaflega átti hér að vera um þungaviktarfund að ræða, en fyrir fundinn ákváðu ráðherrar ESB að halda sig fjarri, að því sagt er til að vekja ekki falskar vonir um „töfralausnir."

Krefst ETUC að Ráðherraráðið og framkvæmdanefnd ESB dragi upp fjárfestingaráætlun sem nemi 1% af vergri þjóðarframleiðslu ESB. Þá vill ETUC styrkingu á velferðarkerfinu, á réttindum vinnandi alþýðu og aukna áherslu á sjálfbærar og umhverfisvænar lausnir. Seðlabanki Evrópu (ECB) er gagnrýndur fyrir að leggja eingöngu áherslu á stöðugleika verðlags en leita ekki lausna sem tryggja betri og fleiri störf. Þá gagnrýnir ETUC Alþjóðagjaldeyrissjóðinn (ASG) fyrir að neyða þjóðir til að lækka laun og skera niður opinber störf og félagsleg útgjöld sem gjald fyrir að þiggja neyðarlán sjóðsins. Þessi aðferðafræði dýpki kreppuna og að meðul sjóðsins geti orðið verri en sjúkdómurinn. Þá er framkvæmdanefnd ESB gagnrýnd fyrir að setja þau skilyrði fyrir lánveitingum úr jöfnunarsjóði ESB,  að þær þjóðir sem á þeim þurfa að halda lúti skilyrðum AGS. Þannig veiki framkvæmdanefnd ESB beinlínis grundvöllinn fyrir „hinu félagslega kerfi Evrópu" (The European Social Model) í mörgum aðildarlöndum ESB.

Þá hafi aukið frelsi á fjármálamarkaði leitt til innbyrðis samkeppni ríkja ESB um að bjóða fyrirtækjum upp á sem hagstæðast skattaumhverfi. Þetta auki á ójöfnuð milli ríkja ESB og grafi undan tekjum ríkja og möguleikum ríkisstjórna á að takast á við kreppuna. Segir ETUC að ekki sé hægt að horfa aðgerðalaust á þessa þróun. „Við bjuggum ekki til sameiginlega mynt,til þess að verða áfram fórnarlömb verstu eiginleika hins alþjóðlega fjármálamarkaðar."

Leggur ETUC til að jöfnunarsjóður framkvæmdanefndar ESB (the European Commission's balance of payments fund) sem nu telji 50 milljarða evra, verði aðskilinn frá Alþjóðagjaldeyrissjóðnum. Skilyrðum ASG verði skipt út fyrir evrópsk skilyrði: fjárhagslegur stuðningur við aðildarþjóðir verði háður því skilyrði að „hið félagslega kerfi Evrópu" verði virt að fullu, sem leiði til meiri jöfnuðar og réttlætis í dreifingu gæða, sterkra réttinda launafólks og réttláts skattakerfis.

Evrópusamband verkalýðsfélaga telur 60 milljónir félaga í opinbera geiranum og á hinum almenna markaði í 36 löndum Evrópu. BSRB er aðili að ETUC sem og stærsta aðildasambandi þess,  EPSU, Evrópusambandi starfsfólks í almannaþjónustu.

(Skjal ETUC er birt hér að neðan á ensku. sjá http://www.etuc.org/a/6136 )

1

ETUC: TOWARDS A NEW SOCIAL DEAL IN EUROPE

 

Executive Summary

The dominance of the neoliberal economic model over the past 30 years

has caused the economic catastrophe that Europe and the rest of the

world are now experiencing. Too many in the overblown, vastly expanded

financial services sector indulged in a modern day version of alchemy.

Long term prudence was ignored as greed and speculation became the

order of the day in Wall Street, London and other major financial centres.

The result before the crash was rapidly rising inequality, the growth of

precarious jobs and pressure to cut the influence of welfare states, worker

rights and collective bargaining. Now to that must be added growing

unemployment, cuts in public expenditure and a collapse in demand in

many countries.

To ease this situation, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC)

calls for a New Social Deal as a driver for social justice and more and

better jobs.

The ETUC, a key player at European level, is ready to take part in the

discussions and implementation of policies affecting social and

employment fields, and is on the offensive for a new social deal in

Europe. The ETUC calls for:

More and better jobs: Investment in an expanded European

recovery plan to mobilise a new drive for growth and jobs. The ETUC

demands the European Council and Commission to draw up a European

investment plan totalling an annual 1% of GDP to provide more and better

jobs, to promote innovation, research and development, to help

employment in key industries, to invest in new, green and sustainable

technologies, and to maintain vital public services.

Stronger welfare systems to provide more security and avoid

social exclusion. The ETUC demands a meaningful and a strong

European Social agenda: to maintain people in jobs with robust income

and to ensure protection to workers as well as an appropriate training.

Stronger workers' rights and an end to the dominance of the

short-termist market principles. Stronger rights are necessary to stop

the trend of rising inequality. The ETUC demands a Social Progress

Protocol giving priority to social rights and collective action and a stronger

Posted Workers Directive. The ETUC also calls for efficient workers'

participation and industrial democracy. Stronger workers' rights are

especially urgently required to stop the rising use of different forms of

insecure, non-standard work.

John Monks, General Secretary

Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 5 • B - 1210 Bruxelles • Tel: +32 2 224 04 11

Fax: +32 2 224 04 54 / 55 • e-mail: etuc@etuc.org • www.etuc.org

2

Better pay: stronger collective bargaining. Wage freezes and

nominal wage cuts are to be rejected. It is vital as demand collapses to

protect purchasing power. The ETUC is therefore seeking a strengthening

of collective bargaining and wage formation institutions with the European

Central Bank (ECB) also committed to more and better jobs. The ECB

must be involved in growth and full employment, not just price stability.

The ETUC demands an advisory board of European social partners to the

ECB.

European solidarity as a protection against the excesses of

financial capitalism: Effective regulation of financial markets, a fair

distribution of wealth, and no return to casino capitalism or to the

‘business as usual' of the past 20 years in financial markets is crucial. The

ETUC demands a major increase in European social spending enlarging

the activities of the European structural funds, notably the European

Social Fund and the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund. Tax

competition coming from deregulated markets must also be tackled

because it threatens Social Europe.

3

EUROPE'S WORKERS NEED A NEW SOCIAL DEAL

Introduction

We are at a crossroads in history. The June elections of the European

Parliament will take place against the background of the worst economic

downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In the aftermath of

this Great Depression, conditions and institutions were created to make

sure such a collapse would not happen again and to obtain a long period

of economic growth. Collective bargaining, social dialogue and strong

trade unions were promoted and unemployment benefit systems were

strengthened so that the benefits of economic progress would be shared

by all. The European Economic Community was founded to strengthen

cooperation in Western Europe.

What will tomorrow's generation remember from today's crisis? Will they

remember that governments undertook major action to prevent this

recession from turning into a devastating job crisis? That politicians finally

took up the responsibility to put a halt to the model of ‘casino capitalism'

with its excessive risk taking, its corporate greed, and its speculation? Or

will they see 2009 as a year in which the opportunity to stop the crisis

from amplifying itself was squandered by sticking to orthodox and dated

economic beliefs, when Europe could not join forces to invest its way out

of the crisis and to strengthen social cohesion and where we failed to

restore and strengthen trade union rights and collective bargaining?

The ETUC, representing millions of workers in Europe, calls for a New

Social Deal to help get us out of the crisis and to make Europe emerge

from it with an economy and a society that are stronger, more equal,

based on social justice and social cohesion, creating more and better jobs,

investing in stronger welfare systems and evolving strongly to a low

carbon and more sustainable future.

Those who try to abuse the crisis as a means to boost their profits and

fortunes at the expense of workers will face the resistance of the

European trade unions.

4

THE NEW SOCIAL DEAL FOR EUROPE: WHAT ARE THE ETUC

DEMANDS

More and better jobs: Investment in an expanded European

recovery plan

European policy makers are not ambitious enough in addressing the crisis.

Many hope the recession is just a temporary ‘blip' and that strong growth

dynamics will return automatically and quickly. This is a major mistake.

We are confronted with a deep crisis of the model of financial capitalism

itself. This crisis of casino capitalism is structural. It will not go away on

its own.

Since debt loads of households, banks and business in many countries

have become excessive, private sector spending and investing is likely to

be depressed for several years to come. The logic of ‘creative destruction'

no longer holds. It is the logic of massive job destruction combined with

poor job creation that is on the rise.

To avoid this doomsday scenario from happening, Europe needs to

mobilise a new driver for growth and jobs. Investing to fight climate

change and in a green and sustainable future for Europe will spur growth

and create millions of new jobs.

The ETUC demands the European Council and Commission to draw up a

European investment plan totalling an annual 1% of GDP effort for the

next three years. Investment possibilities at the European level exist in

the areas of renewable energies, clean technologies, energy savings,

physical and social infrastructure and networks, materials of the future,

modern cars and clean transportation systems need to be identified.

These investments are to be the basis of a new European industrial

strategy ensuring a rapid and fair transition to a low carbon economy and

a more sustainable future.

To avoid an overburdening of member states' public finances and to

overcome the fact that several member states are themselves cut off from

access to affordable finance, this investment effort needs to be supported

at the European level itself. The European budget needs to be topped up

with the European Investment Bank's power to borrow on international

capital markets and all this needs to be backed up by European central

banks buying these debt bonds.

If these investments start to kick in from beginning next year, we can

hope to avoid much of the increase in unemployment that is expected to

take place over 2010. Moreover, these investments will have a multiplying

effect and they will strengthen economic activity and employment further

over time, thereby gradually bringing high unemployment rates back

down over the next years.

5

More security: Stronger welfare systems

Europe risks falling into mass unemployment and this will have major

consequences.

Workers in ‘precarious' employment are taking the first blows. Fixed term

work, now accounting for some 15% or even more of all employment

contracts, provides business in Europe with the ‘easy firing' some

employers are so keen to have. At the same time, workers with precarious

contracts are very poorly compensated for the flexibility they offer to

business. Although they are the first to be fired, workers on fixed term

and agency contracts usually suffer reduced or no access to redundancy

or unemployment benefits, have no access to additional company pension

arrangements and get paid lower wage rates than regular workers.

Moreover, inspired by the slogan of ‘making work pay', many member

states have reduced over the past decade benefit levels and benefit

duration while also making it more difficult to access unemployment

benefit systems. The hypothesis was that the hard core of structurally

unemployed had been reached. However, the crisis is now changing this

dramatically: skilled workers are now flooding into unemployment benefit

systems to find out that the level and the duration of these benefits no

longer provide a means to a decent living.

Finally, mass unemployment does not remain limited to workers with

precarious contracts; it is affecting the entire the work force. For some,

unemployment spells will be short and temporary. For others,

unemployment will become a regular or permanent experience. Workers

with lower qualifications and workers with a weak foothold in the labour

market will be particularly vulnerable.

To face all of these challenges, the ETUC demands a revival of Social

Europe. We urgently need a meaningful and strong European Social

Agenda covering the following policies:

• To maintain existing jobs and to avoid mass redundancies, Europe

needs to generalise short-time working schemes, provided a robust

income for workers is guaranteed. These schemes should also

function as a basis for models of internal flexicurity where job

security, working time flexibility, training and upwards transition

into better jobs in the same company are combined.

• Unemployment benefit systems need to be strengthened and

broadened. Replacement rates, eligibility criteria and limits on

benefit duration need urgent reconsideration and improvement.

Special attention must be given to workers in precarious contracts,

among them many young people, women and ethnic minority or

migrant workers, making sure that they also have sufficient access

to welfare systems.

6

• At the same time, member states need to step up investment in

training, retraining and in active labour market programmes. The

curse of unemployment needs to be turned around in an

opportunity for all workers to upgrade skills and have access to

lifelong learning, with particular attention going to employment

policies necessary to accompany labour market transitions to a

greener economy.

• Provided collectively agreed wages and working conditions are

respected, Member states also need to expand investment in public

services, in particular in social services of general interest. The

ageing of the population, the reduction of the gender employment

gap and the need to improve work/life balance requires greater

public efforts in many social services such as health care, elderly

care and child care. Here as well, unemployment should be turned

around in an opportunity to expand employment in these sectors

and answer pressing societal needs on a quality basis while

avoiding the crisis to become an alibi to turn women away from

paid employment into unpaid household work and voluntary activity

• With a new generation of young people entering a labour market

where the prospect of finding a job is very poor, it is urgent to offer

young people a guarantee of a job, further education or training,

apprenticeships or useful community services.

More security: Stronger workers' rights and an end to the

dominance of the ‘free market' principle over the right of workers

to organise and act

Workers' rights are not part of the problem; they are part of the solution.

Stronger workers' rights are urgent to stop the perverse distribution that

has been going on for many years. Reforms to weaken the bargaining

position of workers have created massive ‘rents' to be captured by vested

interests. While the share of wages and salaries in total national income

went down, the profit share systematically went up. Income inequalities

soared, not only in the Anglo - Saxon world but also in many European

continental countries.

Labour market reforms have also contributed to the rising use of different

forms of non-standard work. Despite the principles laid down in the

European Social Acquis - that non regular contracts should remain the

exception and not become the rule - long and exaggerated chains of fixed

term contracts continue to exist while agency work is sometimes used to

undercut other workers' wages in important parts of Europe. Practices like

these have nothing to do with the objective need for labour market

adaptation; they risk transforming what are basically stable and

productive jobs into insecure contracts paying poor wages.

Stronger rights for workers are necessary to stop these trends of rising

inequalities and precariousness and to make our society ‘whole'. Stronger

7

workers' rights will substitute ‘asset bubble' based demand dynamics with

a model of growth based on productive instead of speculative investment.

The ETUC demands:

• A Social Progress Protocol giving fundamental social rights

precedence over the economic freedoms of the single market. This

includes the collective right to organise, to undertake collective

action and to organise strikes.

• A revision of the Posting of Workers' directive, putting the principles

of ‘equal treatment' and ‘equal pay for equal work' at its core.

• A dispute settlement system and the creation of a specific chamber

at the European Court of Justice, with the participation of the social

partners, devoted to social and labour problems

• The strengthening of the content of the Tripartite Social

Concertation and of the Macro Economic (Social) Dialogue.

• A proper consultation of the European Social Partners in the

framework of Article 138 EC for every (legislative) proposal that

might have an impact on and/or concern social policy in general

and the rights of workers and their representatives in particular.

• Stronger workers' participation and industrial democracy to give

workers a say in managing the current crisis at company level, to

make sure massive lay offs are avoided and to be able to anticipate

future restructuring. Participation rights must become an

constitutive and integrated part of corporate governance and of

European company law. Stronger involvement of workers in

company policy avoids a management style focussed on short term

objectives with negative repercussions on workers. It contributes

instead to the long term sustainability of the enterprise.

Addressing the segmentation of labour markets by upgrading the

protection of precarious contracts implies a rapid decision on the

Temporary Agency Directive. Furthermore, the implementation of the

European fixed term work agreement of 1999 at national level needs to be

strengthened in several countries. Finally, a European legal instrument to

ensure that main contractors can be held liable jointly with their

subcontractors for the payment of wages and social security contributions

needs to be developed.,

8

Better pay: Stronger collective bargaining

A collapse of wage dynamics would intensify the making of the New

Depression. Contrary to the popular myth that wages and collective

bargaining in Europe are rigid, the risk is that wage restraint turns into

wage cuts, causing low inflation to tip over into deflation. If this happens,

then the downwards spiral is complete. A continuous fall in the level of

prices will drag down spending and investments while pushing real

interest rates upwards in the midst of a recession and against a

background of excessive private sector debt loads. Debt deflation, similar

to the 1930's, would then certainly be on the cards.

To prevent Europe's workers from undercutting each others' wages,

thereby triggering deflation and depression, the ETUC demands a

strengthening of collective bargaining and wage formation institutions.

Wage freezes and nominal wage cuts are to be strongly rejected. Instead,

real wage increases are to be promoted with the aim of making wages an

anchor of price stability in these times of looming deflation.

In the context of the European Employment Strategy a European

framework for ‘fair and decent' wages needs to be developed. Its

objective is to encourage Member states together with the national social

partners, to conduct policies and establish collective bargaining practice

putting strong downwards floors in wage dynamics. This implies setting

wage floors for the lowest wages to make sure there's a the bottom in the

labour market under which wages can not fall and avoid a situation in

which low wages become poverty wages. On top of this, it also implies

respecting and promoting ‘going' wage rates and wage increases as

agreed to in collective bargaining agreements.

It is also necessary to stop the perverse practice of rewarding bankers

and CEOs for failing and putting their company or bank at risk through

super dividend pay outs, equity capital buy backs and excessive

borrowing. A European wide crackdown on excessive CEO bonuses and

remuneration, on stock options and golden parachutes as well as on super

dividend pay outs and capital buy-back operations is not only necessary

but also urgent.

European solidarity as a protection against the vagaries of

financial capitalism

Financial markets and Wall Street rating agencies were wrong when they

poured the world's savings into what now turns out to be ‘toxic' assets.

We should not trust these markets and their bias against socially

corrected economies now that they are bidding up interest rate spreads of

several members against German bunds1. This is burdening public

1 Besides Wall Street rating agencies' bias in favour of deregulated and privatised economies, there are

other reasons as well: Headquarters of Western European banks are restricting credit flows to their

Eastern European subsidiaries to drive down their debt positions, there's a flight into German bunds

9

finances and this at a time when governments need increased access to

affordable loans in order to manage the social and economic

consequences of the crisis.

At the same time, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), in return for

emergency loans, is forcing countries to cut wages, public employment

and social spending. These structural adjustment programs work to

deepen the crisis even further and the IMF's cure can be worse than the

disease. The Commission's balance of payment fund is only accessible if

countries implement the reforms imposed by the IMF. In this way, the

Commission itself is in the business of weakening the European Social

Model in several member states.

Another threat to Social Europe is the tax competition coming from

deregulated international capital markets. When capital moves freely

around, international groups are able to play member states off against

each other and orient capital and investment flows to these countries

where they get the best conditions. In the past this has led to tax

competition between member states trying to attract investment flows

and the unfolding crisis may accelerate this kind of ‘beggar thy neighbour'

policy even further. This, again, threatens to undermine government

revenue and to limit the possibilities of governments to face the crisis.

Europe can not sit by and watch all of this happen. We did note create a

single currency in order to continue to be at the mercy of the worst

features of international financial markets.

To start with, the European Commission's balance of payments fund, now

representing 50 billion euro should be operated separately from the IMF.

IMF conditionalities need to be replaced by European conditionalities:

financial support for member states has to make sure the European Social

Model is respected to the fullest extent, with distributive justice, robust

workers' rights and fair tax systems taking centre stage.

The game of tax competition in the internal market, undermining the

revenue basis of governments, has to stop. We urgently need a European

agenda to address tax havens, zero or near zero taxes, flat tax regimes

and to coordinate closely on corporate profit tax systems, capital gain

taxes and taxes on high fortunes.

Here, Europe needs to take another step forwards. Europe can only face

this crisis if it stands together. This implies a major increase in European

social spending, enlarging the activities of the European Social Funds and

the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, and making sure all workers

in all countries and regions have a social safety net to fall back on. In the

same vein, Europe also needs to put in place a ‘low carbon economy

adaptation' fund to accompany the labour market changes implied by the

because the market for these bunds is bigger and more liquid, and a general risk aversion redirects

capital flows away from these countries

10

fight against climate change (supporting mobility and training for green

jobs). The European budget, now representing less than 1% of European

budget, needs substantial beefing up. The ETUC proposes that this be

done by introducing European level taxes, for example a tax on financial

speculation or a tax on super dividend pay outs.

Finally, Europe can not limit itself to coordinate national financial markets'

regulatory authorities. The European financial market place needs a single

European level regulator, along with specific effective regulation for hedge

funds and private equity, mandatory registration and supervision of credit

rating agencies and a European credit rating agency. On the international

level, the Commission should play a leading role in constructing a new

global, transparent and accountable financial architecture, involving the

Financial Stability Board, the G 20, the IMF and the World Bank as well as

the ILO. On both the European as well as the international level, social

partners have to be closely involved.

An independent and unbiased European Central Bank also

committed to more and better jobs

The ETUC stands firmly behind the European single currency. The euro

has brought Europe many advantages.

However, the way the ECB has been handling the crisis is disappointing.

The ECB should have cut interest rates earlier and more vigorously to

ward off the economic meltdown. Even now, with the economy in a deep

recession and with the spectre of deflation looming, the ECB is resisting

the use of all instruments it has to stimulate the economy. Fearing once

again that inflation is around the corner, the ECB is reluctant to adopt

"quantitative easing" and to bring interest rates on government bonds

further down so that more room for fiscal stimulus is created.

The bias in favour of inflation fighting policies can also lead the ECB to the

erroneous view that labour market deregulation and a weakening of

workers' rights are necessary to create jobs. Over the past years, the ECB

has indeed attacked public institutions which promote workers' interests

such as minimum wages, wage indexation, public sector wages and job

protection legislation.

The euro is too important to leave to central bankers. The ETUC therefore

demands an advisory board of European social partners to the European

Central Bank. Central bankers can no longer lock themselves up in an

ivory tower. They need to confront economic reality and there's no better

way to do so than to have regular and systematic contacts and

discussions with trade unions and employer organisations.

Finally, the European Central Bank needs to address the worrying trend of

high interest rates spreads inside the euro area. Low, almost non existing

differences in interest rates have been a main advantage of the creation

of the single currency and this advantage has now disappeared. The ECB

11

has the power to restore this benefit of the single currency by buying

those bonds showing excessive interest rate spreads with the German

bond.