BM 65 – A living wage- fair pay and conditions for young workers
The economic crisis in Europe has led to the creation of an ‘internship culture’ in some states as well as a significant erosion in the rights to fair pay and decent working conditions. For many young people, precarious work and exploitative internships are made necessary in order to remain active in a saturated labour market.
This so-called ‘internship culture’ has seen state-subsidised labour activation schemes, such as the ‘Jobbridge’ graduate internship programme in Ireland, lead to cheap labour and the displacement of real, full-time paid work becoming standard and accepted practice. A lack of oversight, monitoring and regulation has led to these schemes being exploited to the detriment of young workers.
ESU resolves to support the right to all workers for a ‘living wage’, in order to be remunerated sufficiently to meet a fair and decent standard of living.
We are committed to fair pay, decent standards and living conditions forming a fundamental part of the economies our European recovery is built on.