European Trade Union Committee for Education

Together with EPSU, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, ETUCE calls for a strong media action to get our message across that it is time for our recovery, and that restoration of social dialogue and collective bargaining is crucial to tackle wealth and wage inequalities, and to deliver quality education for all.

Following the financial crisis of 2008 and the austerity measures imposed by some national governments and European institutions, public spending cuts deeply impacted on education budgets in Europe. With increasingly less funding available for this sector, workers in education were hit particularly hard, with numerous cases of salary decreases and freezes, as well as losses of benefits and additional workload.

• As a direct impact, teachers and education personnel in Europe have been left yet to see their purchasing power returning to pre-crisis levels. In other words, salaries remain blocked and frozen in spite of the modest economic recovery. In addition, the increase in short-term employment contracts in public services led to higher precariousness, for example in early childhood education and higher education and research.
• Social dialogue in nearly all European countries weakened in parallel with increasing denial/obstruction of trade union rights, including limits on the scope of bargaining of education trade unions on rights and working conditions, and professional issues related to education and training reforms.

The ETUC’s Pay Rise Campaign calls for a pay rise for workers in Europe, and the restauration of collective bargaining, encouraged and promoted as the only way to tackle wealth and wage inequalities across Europe.

In its efforts to defend education as a public good, and to oppose the durable impact of deteriorating living and working conditions for all education personnel, the ETUCE Committee has joined the Campaign earlier this year.

We are now asking all ETUCE member organisations to further support the Pay Rise Campaign, now with a particular focus on calling for a pay rise in the public sector, at the occasion of the Public Services Day, on 23 June.

Together with EPSU, the European Federation of Public Service Unions, ETUCE calls for a strong media action to get our message across that it is time for our recovery, and that restoration of social dialogue and collective bargaining is crucial to tackle wealth and wage inequalities, and to deliver quality education for all.

We are calling upon all ETUCE member organisations to take action and join the Campaign on 23 June by use the material available:

• EPSU - ETUCE Briefing "Pay in the Public Sector: how workers continue to pay for the crisis”. We hope you can use this briefing for your events, share it with the media and policy makers in your county.
• EPSU - ETUCE Press Release (embargoed until midday 21 June):  EN - FR - ES
• Campaign logos You can download them (see download section on the right hand side) and take a photo of yourself, your colleagues, your union with the signs. You can post the pictures on your social media pages, with the hashtag #OurPayRise and #PublicServiceDay and @ETUCE_CSEE and @EPSU. You are also invited to email them to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• An animated video on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s9N08vx3jk&feature=youtu.be The video covers all public sector workers. We ask you to circulate and make available through your web and social media.

For any additional information please contact the ETUCE Secretariat (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).