Survey exposes pressure faced by care workers

A new report by the Eurofound research organisation examines the long-term care sector and the challenges of low pay and difficult working conditions faced by workers, 80% of whom are women. The report indicates that there is good collective bargaining coverage in some countries, but this is often mainly in the public sector with low coverage in the private, for-profit sector and particularly low coverage of home care staff. Low pay, relative to other sectors, even impacts on the more skilled and senior staff and the widespread use of part-time work – double that of other sectors – also means

Research by the European Trade Union Confederation has found that payouts to shareholders are rising up to 13 times faster than pay for working people. Taking two examples, dividend payments increased by 75% in Portugal and 66% in Denmark between April and June this year, while nominal compensation in those countries rose by only 6% and 5%. Across Europe, dividends increased by 10% – double the rate at which wages are rising. Meanwhile, the ETUC has also focused on the increase in educational costs for families as children return to school. The price of essential items like pens, pencils

An ETUC analysis reveals that European companies have paid inflation-busting dividends to their shareholders while workers have been struggling to cope with the cost of living crisis. The value of payouts to shareholders increased by 28.6% in Europe during the second quarter of this year, according to the newly-published Janus Henderson Global Dividend Index. That’s more than seven times faster than the rate at which wages are rising across the European Union. Dividend increases were particularly high in Spain (97.7%), Italy (72.2%), Germany (36.3%) and France (32.7%). The ETUC argues that the