Measures taken in the European Union to protect workers during the pandemic

Abstract

This article examines EU initiatives prompted by the need to protect the labor market and working citizens in member states, and measures taken at the national level in Germany and France. The EU’s involvement in ensuring protection of workers’ rights in pandemic circumstances has been limited to formulating recommendations to countries and financial assistance, as well as prioritizing the social element in European Union policies. This paper examines the Support to mitigate Unemployment Risks in an Emergency instrument developed by the EU in 2020 and the draft directive on an adequate minimum wage in the EU published at the height of the pandemic in autumn 2020. A review of measures in Germany and France focuses on a mechanism to reduce working hours during the period of economic activity restrictions by placing most costs on the state. In Germany, this is the Kurzarbeit (reduced working hours) program. In France, this is the transfer to reduced working hours with the permission of the administrative authority, in the case of lost wages caused by the temporary closure of the company or part of it, or reduction of working hours below the statutory working hours. The author concludes that the rapid economic and labor market recovery in these countries is, among other things, due to the financing of the wages lost due to wage restraint from the state budget. It is of interest to further study the foreign experience of implementing reduced working hours programs for possible use in Russia.