industriAll Europe’s Youth Working Group

In line with the priorities of the Youth Working Group, namely improving the quality of work for young workers and apprentices through organising and collective bargaining,  the seminar in Belgrade focused on identifying instruments for effective collective bargaining for youth. Younger workers face particular challenges, because they are more likely to be on a precarious contract: 44% have a temporary contract which often offers no social benefits e.g. sick leave. This rise in precarious work has been caused by the weakening of collective bargaining (CB) across Europe, especially after the 2008 crisis. In many countries, younger workers have been employed on contracts not protected by collective agreements and on significantly worse pay and conditions than previous hires.

During the seminar, the participants learned from an academic speaker about the collective bargaining situation across Europe and exchanged about realities and best practices in their countries. The findings of the event will be shared during the industriAll Europe “Together at Work” campaign for collective bargaining which will focus on young workers in January 2020 under the monthly slogan “Our future together at work”.