The European Trade Union Institute

A great paradox of our times is that while there is a general consensus that growing inequalities are threatening social, economic and human development, there appears to be little collective reflection on what actions should be taken in order to redress this state of affairs. Inequality is not an accident of history but the product of a series of ideologically embedded, yet ultimately political, choices about the way our economies and societies generate and allocate resources and opportunities.  

The 2022 ETUI-ETUC joint conference will seek to trigger such a process of reflection and debate. It will aim at moving the discourse surrounding inequality beyond the important task of mapping out, measuring, and ascertaining the many facets and precise nature of this multidimensional and complex problem, and embarking onto the more normative quest of imagining and defining a more equal society. 

From the consumer goods transported by ship or lorry and the meals delivered to us directly by bike, through to the trains and buses we take every day to get to work and the flights we book to go on holiday, it’s clear that transport workers are absolutely essential to our everyday lives.

The social dimension of the European Green Deal remains underdeveloped. The social and employment-related challenges of the green transition span many dimensions, such as job losses and employment transitions, reskilling and upskilling of the workforce, distributional effects of decarbonisation policies, the protection of social rights and citizen participation. 

In view of the formidable challenges ahead related to recovery from the Covid-19 crisis and to the green and digital transitions, the EU social governance toolbox should urgently be strengthened. This paper discusses the conditions for and added value of setting up an EU Social Imbalances Procedure (SIP), which would be a significant step in this direction. It would contribute to ensuring that EU and Member States’ policies are organised (more) consistently with the notion of competitive sustainability; it would also contribute to achieving upward social convergence and reducing inequalities. After identifying normative, functional, technical and political arguments that support the creation of a Social Imbalances Procedure, the paper develops two main options for its operationalisation. 

The pandemic seems to have accelerated the expansion of all kinds of platform work and at the same time, platform work is being increasingly associated with difficult working conditions, health and safety risks, and inadequate levels of income for those that rely on it as a source of living. This podcast episode will shed light on some of the key insights from the second wave of the Internet and Platform work survey conducted in fourteen EU countries in Spring 2021. 

The spread of Covid-19 and the ensuing adoption of lockdown measures have had severe consequences for European labour markets. All EU governments quickly made unprecedented economic and social support available to tackle the consequences of the pandemic.

Labour provisions in trade agreements have been criticised for minimal effectiveness in improving employment conditions. Five recent cases point to some benefits and to the lessons on when and how labour provisions can be effective. 

What type of European social citizenship does the public across the European Union (EU) prefer on the national- and EU-levels? This episode looks into the development of public opinion towards European social citizenship from 1985 to the present from a birds-eye perspective.

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected women disproportionately and is likely to have adverse effects on gender equality. It is essential that efforts to promote gender equality be increased in order to ensure that hard-won progress in this area is not reversed.

As part of this effort, the European Commission should table a proposal on binding pay transparency measures strengthening the principle of equal pay between men and women, in accordance with the Gender Equality Strategy 2020–2025.

Work-related psychological risks (PSR) pose an ever-growing problem for modern labour. Awareness of the problem and approaches to its legal regulation vary across the EU. Many central and eastern European states still lag behind in addressing the problem in their national legislation.