Wage-Up – raising wages and equality

ongoing

Collective bargaining, decent wages and equal pay between women and men constitute core priorities of the European Trade Union movement. These priorities have gained important momentum, as both have been subject to legislative proposals from the European Commission, with the publication of the Directive on adequate minimum wages and the Directive to strengthen the application of the principle of equal pay for equal work or work of equal value between men and women through pay transparency and enforcement mechanisms. Both Directives have by now entered into force amid a cost-of-living crisis that can be mitigated through the swift and ambitious transposition of both legislative acts in all Member states. The lowest earners have been hit the hardest by inflation, and 60% of minimum wage earners are women. The cost-of–living crisis has once again underlined how collective agreements continue to be our strongest tool to ensure fair wages. Against this policy background and building on the past ETUC project “New Frontiers for Collective Bargaining”, this new project “Wage Up – Raising Wages and Equality” aims to support ETUC members to play a strong role in an ambitious transposition of the two Directives and to strengthen collective bargaining. This will be done through three interlinked tracks: - Adequate Minimum Wages Directive (Track AMW): strengthening the role of social partners in defining statutory minimum wages and in defining practices for strengthening collective bargaining via the Directive. - Gender Pay Transparency Directive (Track GPT): exploiting in full the prerogatives available for social partners in the transposition of the Directive. - common track: explore synergies and complementary elements between the other two tracks. This will allow TUs to be well equipped to accompany and support the national transposition of the two Directives and to increase the impact of union action and improve outcomes for workers.