The European Union has made little progress towards its aim of raising the quality of employment over the last decade and some countries have even gone backwards, new ETUC research has found. 

The impact of EU austerity policies on performance is clear in the ETUC’s new Decent Work Index, with Greece, Italy and Spain among the five worst performing countries. The other two, Bulgaria and Romania, show not enough is being done to bridge the economic divide between west and east Europe.

The performance of Greecewas worse in 2019 than it was in 2010, while the performance of Luxembourg and the UK was worse than it was in 2015. The top four best performing countries are in the north of Europe: the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Sweden.

The index also highlights how GDP has little bearing on decent work. Ireland had experienced high levels of GDP growth in recent years but performs badly in the Decent Work Index because its GDP is based on extremely low corporation tax and government expenditure on social protection.

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