IndustriAll Europe’s policy brief highlights the shift in EU priorities over recent decades. Globalisation and deregulation at the turn of the century, the economic downturn of 2008, and subsequent austerity measures have all led to a focus on wage competition and sub-standard working conditions, sidelining innovation, quality, and research. The COVID-19 pandemic further exposed the vulnerabilities of the low-cost, low-quality jobs model, underlining the need for a significant policy shift towards job quality. This shift has been reflected in recent key policy papers, such as the La Hulpe Declaration, the Letta Report, and the Antwerp Declaration.

IndustriAll Europe's policy brief stresses that quality jobs are essential, not just for individual workers, but for companies and society as a whole. Poor-quality jobs have far-reaching negative impacts, including compromised health, perpetuated in-work poverty, exacerbated child poverty, reinforced gender inequalities, and restricted social mobility.

The European Commission's new action plan to address labour and skills shortages acknowledges the importance of quality jobs, marking a positive shift in policy. However, challenges such as political resistance, business opposition, and implementation difficulties persist. A lack of consensus on how to measure job quality also poses a significant challenge.

For that reason, industriAll Europe advocates for a standardised European measure of job quality, supported by a comprehensive dataset to be collected every five years by the European Commission. This standardised measure should include a framework of minimum standards across work and employment, negotiated and guaranteed through collective agreements. This measure could be a milestone if considered a condition for accessing tendering and public contract processes.

Inspired by the work of the Warwick Institute for Employment Research, seven key dimensions of the standard measure of job quality have been highlighted: terms of employment, pay, health and safety, job design and training, social support and cohesion, and work-life balance. The importance of quality jobs comes at a fundamental time, when the nature of many jobs is in jeopardy due to the digital and green transition. The maintenance and improvement of job quality will be key to keeping our societies resilient and ensuring a Just Transition that leaves no one behind.

Read the policy brief  here