European Anti-Poverty Network: Inclusive Labour Markets – Building pathway approaches to quality employment
The European Anti-Poverty Network (EAPN) presents its position paper on ‘Inclusive Labour Markets‘. It sets out our understanding of inclusive labour markets, detailing the elements needed to make them a reality for both the supply and the demand side, and puts forward the perspective of our members, including people experiencing poverty and social exclusion in Europe and the civil society organisations that represent them. It puts forward specific recommendations – for the EU and national levels – to guarantee targeted efforts to support specific groups into quality, sustainable employment, thus promoting pathways to inclusion.
This is a particularly relevant discussion, at a time when the employment and poverty-reduction targets of Europe 2020 seem to be at odds. The employment objective of the strategy is too often approached as a play on statistics, with many Governments trying for too long to meet the numbers without addressing the impact on quality of work and employment, on the economy overall, on societies, and on people’s lives. Gender discrimination, unhealthy or stressful physical environments, increased work intensity, irregular working schedules, work during alleged free-time, and concentration at the lower end of the income distribution are key aspects that characterise bad quality of work throughout Europe.
It builds on extensive work done by EAPN members on the quality of work and employment and in support of living wages, previous EAPN publications, and EAPN’s positioning and responses to recent European initiatives such as the long-term unemployment recommendation, and the European Pillar of Social Rights. Furthermore, it builds on in-depth discussions held in EAPN’s EU Inclusion Strategies Group, including a dedicated session in October 2016, as well as conclusions from the European Meetings of People Experiencing Poverty. It incorporates views, stories, and recommendations building on our national members’ work on the ground, supporting directly those furthest from the labour market, and actively engaging with policies shaping the interaction between people experiencing poverty and the world of work.
