Frankfurt – IG Metall welcomes the new EU-wide minimum wage directive that the European Parliament passed today as an important step towards more social justice throughout Europe. Wolfgang Lemb, executive board member of IG Metall: “The minimum wage directive is a success for the trade unions and an important starting point for solidarity and against the social competition to the bottom in the European internal market. This strengthening of appropriate working and living conditions for employees across Europe is more important than ever in view of the many crises.”
What is particularly positive about the directive is that it not only strengthens access to statutory minimum wages, but also improves the conditions for free and fair collective bargaining across the EU. This can be found in particular in the action plan to promote collective bargaining and in the specifications for public procurement. The German legislature is now required to consistently implement the directive over the next two years and to show how the collective agreement can be strengthened in close coordination with the trade unions.
“But it is also clear,” Lemb continued, “that good wages and an appropriate share in company profits will not come from Brussels, Strasbourg or the 27 capitals – not even with the adopted directive. Local trade unions still have to fight for fair wage policies themselves. Collective bargaining rights and minimum wage rights are only as strong as the unions that use those rights.”
And that is increasingly lacking in the EU. Contact restrictions during the pandemic and the many economic downturns have often weakened Europe’s trade unions and their membership base. In addition, fighting trade unions and their rights is the order of the day, particularly in Eastern Europe.
Therefore, according to Lemb, a first step has now been taken with the directive, but it must not stop there: “The EU must do more to protect the collective rights of trade unions. In the past, EU jurisprudence has repeatedly given fundamental economic freedoms priority over the collective rights of trade unions. Conversely, however, we need an unexceptional priority rule for the right of trade unions to free industrial action and fair collective agreements!”