CAJ Germany celebrates Equal Pay Day on March 2019

Equal Pay Day stands for the gender pay gap between women and men, which according to the Federal Statistical Office is 21 percent in Germany. This large pay gap means that women work for free until 18 March, i.e. 77 days, while men have been paid for their work since 1 January. Thus, the gross hourly wage for men is 4.41 euros more than for women.

Germany lies thereby in the European comparison far behind. Positive examples in Europe are Romania, Italy and Belgium, which have gender pay gaps of less than 7 percent.

Planning ahead for our next Symbolic Action

Planning Ahead for our next Symbolic Action

WATCH THIS SPACE for more news about dates, times and places for our collective action in response to the life stories we are hearing from across Europe.

As the world talks of crisis, we speak directly to young workers  and job seekers about their experiences of precarious living and working conditions.

During the months of June and July, a small working group have been meeting to develop an action plan in response to our collection of stories from young workers frustrated and mistreated in their search for permanent work.

IT'S TIME TO ACT

With this as our motivation, we will organise a space for exchange, lobby and direct public action to proclaim the right to stability and security in our working lives.

More updates soon!

Bill of demands for vocational training

The demands made in this bill have been drawn from the experiences of thousands of young Europeans.

These experiences make us think that it is possible to build a society with a more human face, a society of solidarity in which you, I and others can be happy and develop our abilities.

We are young people from working-class backgrounds, aged between 15 and 30. We invite everyone who wishes to contribute to designing better vocational training for the future to join us so that we can reflect on the subject together.

We wish to involve the people with political responsibility for vocational training in our discussions. We also want to involve youth organizations, who know how important it is that all should participate in building our common future.

 

WHAT IS HAPPENING IN EUROPE?

Our society is going through changes so profound that they are completely transforming the job market. If present trends continue, only a minority0will have access to stable, skilled and well-paid work, while the majority will go from one badly-paid temporary post to the next, with little security or social protection. A considerable proportion of the population will find itself in an even worse situation, completely excluded from the universe of production and consumption, with no social protection whatsoever.

The European Community Memorandum on Vocational Training for the 1990s starts out from the assumption that vocational training almost automatically leads to employment. Such an assumption creates exaggerated hopes which are quite out of step with reality. Though vocational training sometimes helps young people to enter the job market, we know that in many cases it does not. In other words, vocational training is not going to solve the whole problem of unemployment.

The main problem of our society is that its wealth is concentrated in ever fewer hands.

We believe it is urgent that wealth and work should be shared, in order to provide work for all. Working time should be reduced without loss of wages. We also need the introduction of a "social wage", based on the principle that everyone has the right to live in dignity.

 

CAJ Germany

KAJ Flanders

JOC Wallonie-Bruxelles

International YCW