The European Commissioner for Employment says he is in favor of the four-day working week in the European Union (EU), namely for sectors with a labor shortage, and points out that this must move forward on the basis of agreements with the social partners.
“I think this is something that develops gradually […]because the new generations have a certain vision of the balance between work and private life” and “I am open to that”, said the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit, in an interview with the Lusa agency in Brussels.
At a time when Portugal is also progressing with a pilot project in this area, the European Commissioner for Guardianship points out that there is “no common position” in the EU on the four-day working week.
“I think it’s something that will happen based on agreements between social partners,” he insists.
Taking as an example Germany, where the largest trade union is calling for progress in introducing the four-day working week and where some companies are already presenting this solution to recruit workers, namely in the transport sector, Nicolas Schmit states that “the issue of reducing working hours can be a way to attract employees.
“Since it is difficult for certain sectors to attract people, maybe they also need to become more attractive,” he points out, emphasizing that it is “something that will be addressed in the negotiations between the social partners”.
Nicolas Schmit tells Lusa that, currently in the EU, “the biggest problem is not so much unemployment” but rather the shortage of manpower, given that “many sectors are desperate for workers and cannot find them because people are not want to work there or because they don’t have the right skills”.
“We still have major skills gaps in the labor market”, a situation that the EU must respond to, concludes the European Commissioner in this interview.
In Portugal, a pilot project is planned under the Decent Work Agenda to test the four-day working week on a voluntary basis and without loss of income.
The balance sheet of the first phase of this pilot project, released last March, announced that the second phase of the four-day workweek program has interested 46 companies out of a total of 99.
Among the main reasons for companies not to proceed to the preparation phase are the global economic outlook, the need for financial investment, the complexity of its implementation, while others noted that “it is not the best solution to the problems” and that the benefits of the measure “won’t be great” in the context of the company.
Most of the 46 who went ahead with the project, which has government support, have up to 10 employees, while five employ more than 1,000 people.
The main areas represented in the second phase of the project are consultancy, scientific, technical and similar activities, at almost 40%, followed by education and information and communication activities – at around 15% each.
Wage increases to avoid “drastic drop” in EU demand
The commissioner also defends salary increases in European Union (EU) member states to prevent a “drastic fall” in demand, in the face of high inflation, and also asks countries to introduce European legislation on adequate minimum wages. to take.
“I wouldn’t say pay [mínimos] can go to extremes, but at the same time we must preserve people’s purchasing power,” says Nicolas Schmit.
“Otherwise we will have a drastic fall in demand and then we will have inflation plus recession,” he adds.
In its Spring Economic Forecast, published a week ago, the European Commission has again revised upwards the inflation forecast for the eurozone for 2023, now at 5.8% compared to the previously forecast 5.6%, admitting that the “more persistent”.
For Portugal, the community manager improved the projection of the inflation rate in Portugal to 5.1% this year.
In these forecasts, the institution also emphasized in the country chapter that “in annual average terms, unemployment [em Portugal] projected at 6.5% in 2023 and 6.3% in 2024 in a context of subdued increases in employment and real wages, amply compensating workers for the loss of purchasing power in 2022″.
After the EU unemployment rate hit an all-time low of 6% in March this year and employment was at record highs, the European Commission also estimated that the eurozone unemployment rate will be 6.8% this year and 6.7% in 2024 , 6.2% and 6.1% respectively in the 27 Member States as a whole.
“We have now returned to a period of higher inflation after inflation left us for three decades. […] and it is important that we can maintain the purchasing power of the workers,” argues Nicolas Schmit.
For this reason, the European Commissioner for Guardianship is pleased that “minimum wages have increased significantly in many European countries”, albeit below inflation, which was 7% in April this year.
Speaking about the new law for adequate minimum wages across the community bloc, with which the EU hopes to help ensure decent working and living conditions for workers in Europe, Nicolas Schmit tells Lusa that “Member States must transpose it into their national legislation and some have already done so or are about to do so”.
“I think this is on track now, [mas] there is still a lot to do, because it is not only about the minimum wage, but also about collective bargaining,” he concludes,
The Directive establishes procedures for the adequacy of national minimum wages, promotes collective bargaining on wage setting and improves effective access to minimum wage protection for workers entitled to a minimum wage under national law, for example through a national minimum wage or collective agreements.
EU countries must transpose the directive into national law by November 2024.
Source: DN
