Closing conference “Precarious work: empowering trade unions to address new challenges

CESI’s EU co-funded project on “Precarious work: empowering trade unions to address new challenges” ends with this final conference after two years of intensive work of reflection, capacity-building and advocacy on the different dimensions of precarious work in Europe, notably in terms of widespread inadequate social protection, lacking effective interest representation by trade unions, and discrimination in labour law – especially through abusive uses of atypical employment contracts.

After two conferences, an online survey, four webinars, and several research initiatives, the objective of this final conference to present some of the most recent developments in relation to these issues and to outline next steps to combat precarious work across the EU. To pave the way for the road ahead, the impacts of Covid-19 on precarious work will be given a particular emphasis.

Through its assessment in the course of the project, CESI has highlighted the following key focusses:

• Access to social protection for all workers, including young workers, migrant and seasonal workers, platform workers and all those coming from a disadvantaged background;
• Proper and effective interest representation of all workers, in particular those in atypical employment;
• An inclusive social dialogue;
• The closure of existing legislative gaps (for instance in the EU directives on fixed-term contracts, part-time contracts, and temporary agency work);
• Applying the principles of equal treatment as seamlessly as possible.

This event will count with the valuable contributions of:

Joost Korte, Director General of the DG-EMPL of the European Commission
Klaus Heeger, Secretary General of the CESI
Terry Reintke, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA
Paul Schoukens, Professor of social security law at the University of Tilburg and KU Leuven
Ilka Wölfle, President of the European Social Insurance Platform
Sophie Robin-Olivier, Professor of European Union law at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
Sergio Galleano, Labour Lawyer at Studio Legale Galleano in Rome/Milan
Adam Pokorny, Head of Unit Working Conditions at the European Commission
Aurora Trif, Professor of employment relations at the Dublin City University
Henry Chango Lopéz, Secretary General of the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB)
Marcello Pacífico, President of the Associazone Sindicale Professionale (ANIEF)
Sara Rinaudo, Chairwoman of CESI’s working group on the Future of Work
Romain Wolff, President of the CESI
Moderator: Pierre Baussand, Head of Eurofound’s Brussels’ Liaison Office

Register by submitting this form by February 17.

To learn more about this topic visit #noprecariouswork website.

This project is mainly funded by funds from the European Union.