Low pay / minimum wages

At its meeting on 20 February 2006 the EPSU Executive endorsed the idea of a campaign to tackle low pay.

This would include a political campaign on statutory minimum wage rates and a co-ordinated campaign of collective bargaining targeting minimum wages in collective agreements.

First steps in the campaign would include:
 circulate low pay policy document to all affiliates;
 update and extend information from affiliates on existing initiatives to tackle low pay and confirm data on lowest pay rates and lowest paid occupations in each agreement;
 contact anti-poverty groups and MEPs to see if they will back a campaign against low pay and plan launch meeting; and
 send low pay policy document to ETUC Collective Bargaining Committee and see if the ETUC will develop a policy on low pay.

The Executive Committee was clear that the campaign will not set out to advocate or achieve a European minimum wage.

The aim of both elements of the campaign will be to set targets for minimum wage rates (statutory and collectively agreed) which should be relevant to each individual European country.

The Committee also emphasised that the campaign would not set out to promote any changes in national minimum wage systems or collective bargaining. It would not advocate the introduction of statutory minimum wages where they don’t exist.

Where statutory minimum wage rates are already in place the aim would be to consider a campaign for increases to bring the rate up to 60% of national median earnings in each country.

In terms of collectively agreed minimum rates in the public services, the target set would be higher. The campaign should also focus on extending the coverage of collective agreements.

In each case and in each country current minimum rates would need to be assessed against these targets and a timetable set for trying to achieve the targets.

National affiliates will have to tailor the campaign to fit their particular circumstances in terms of both collective bargaining and minimum wage setting practice. In some cases the targets may be for the longer term with lower targets set to be achieved in the short-term.

Again, in each country and at European level EPSU and its affiliates can seek to establish links with other trade unions as wells as community and anti-poverty organisations in their campaigning.

The aim will also be to broaden the campaign to involve European anti-poverty organizations and to take the argument to the European Parliament and European Commission to challenge them on what is being done to ensure that workers are “fairly remunerated” as required by the Charter of Fundamental Social Rights of Workers.

The campaigns will be regularly reviewed with at least an annual round-up of progress presented to the EPSU collective bargaining conference and Executive Committee with reports circulated through the epsucob@ collective bargaining network and included in the regular epsucob@NEWS email bulletin.