GRTU welcomes Commission’s proposal to tackle the effects of the crises

GRTU welcomes the measures proposed by the European Commission in its Communication "A shared Commitment for employment" published last week. The Commission has been able to focus on the right priorities, with a special attention given to improve vocational training in order to better match labour market needs.

According to Xavier Durieu, Secretary General of EuroCommerce, representatives of GRTU in Brussels, we are probably faced with the worst recession of the past 70 years. Given the resulting fall in consumption and consumer confidence, it is essential that public authorities take the right steps to ensure that private consumption is maintained, to favour labour market flexibility and to boost employability particularly of those workers who are most vulnerable because of education or skills deficits.

The employers of the commerce sector express their satisfaction for the publication of the Commission's Communication putting forward priorities and actions to preserve jobs and help those facing difficulties while paving the way for recovery.

The Commission puts forward three key priorities: maintaining employment, creating jobs and promoting mobility; upgrading skills and matching labour market needs; increasing access to employment. These measures should be regarded as complementary to other initiatives taken by the Commission to face the crisis, included recent proposals on financial supervision and the proposal aimed to improve the functioning of the European Globalisation Fund in times of crisis.

The proposals contained in the Communication are consistent with the EU longer term strategies to reform labour market as part of the Lisbon strategy. GRTU particularly welcome the focus put on the necessity to provide young people, included the less favoured of them, with the training and opportunities they need to ensure they have more chances to enter the labour market. Actually, the improvement of skills to better match the needs of labour market is a priority for a dynamic sector such as the commerce is. 

It is also important that the demand side of labour market gets the right attention and that the difficulties of businesses are taken into account, mainly through the Commission's call to reduce the non-labour wage costs and promote entrepreneurship and self-employment, which are essential for the commerce sector.