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At the ETUI-ETUC Conference ‘Shaping the new world of work – The impacts of digitalisation and robotisation’, UNI Europa Regional Secretary Oliver Roethig today presented a new report on the key findings and debates in academic research on the service sector in Europe.

European services are the backbone of European economic and social life, and since 2000 their role is growing and employment in the sector has risen. If this trend is managed correctly it can lower the rate of unemployment. Yet, there is also a manifest danger that increasingly tough competition in the service market could create a downward spiral in wages and working conditions.

EU policies until now have focused exclusively on creating and driving forward the single market for services via a comprehensive liberalisation and deregulation of the sector.  This limited approach can damage the service sector by fuelling intense cost pressure and creating volatile markets. As a result, the quality of services that citizens and businesses rely on has dropped, investment needs are unmet which hampers innovation, wages have fallen and jobs have become more insecure. These factors have contributed to rising income inequalities.  Meanwhile, new and more volatile forms of work have surfaced eroding the quality of jobs in European labour markets.

Digitalisation and related technological change are fundamentally altering the nature of working in the sector. The work force is increasingly polarised between high- and low-skilled jobs as well as suffering from skill shortages. New forms of employment are on the rise, with the risk of a growing number of workers facing precariousness. The service sector accounts for more than 70% of the European Union’s output and jobs, so the future growth path and overall development of the economy and labour markets depends on its health.

UNI Europa aims to build a common forward-looking political platform on how industrial relations and public policy as well as trade union action can underpin our strategy. This platform will tackle many of the challenges, not least the changing nature of the service sector and its jobs, including digital skills, measures to counteract the polarisation of the labour force, and how we can make sure that the service sector of the future is characterised by inclusion, empowerment and cohesion across geographical spaces, citizens and workers.

Read the UNI Europa Factsheet here

Read the Executive Summary here

Read the full report here