* : Campaign to ban unpaid internships (finally!)

Dear Members of the Youth Committee, 

We are happy to inform you about the launch of our campaign to ban unpaid internships.  

ETUC has long been warning that the austerity measures introduced after the last economic crisis, together with the impact of the COVID pandemic make the labour market a very hostile place for young workers. The race to the bottom and liberalisation of the market led to an increase in young people who had little choice but to accept unfair working conditions in the form of temporary contracts, 0 hours contracts, bogus self-employment, unpaid or poorly paid internships that often substituted entry-level jobs.



With this campaign, we do not want to only raise awareness, we demand that the EU institution to take a stand and propose binding measures for member states to protect the rights of young workers and stop unfair practices to exploit them. 

How will the campaign look like? 

The campaign will have European and National dimensions as these two levels are necessary to reach the goal. The initial online actions will be then complemented by national events with the participation of local and European policymakers and youth stakeholders. 

For more information please read the campaign briefing note. 

The campaign is financially supported by FES and will be run by the ETUC secretariat but we DO NEED support. For this reason, we hereby open a call for our members to join the campaign's steering group. The group's main role will be to provide feedback on the plans prepared by the secretariat and identify online and offline actions that could be part of the campaign. 

The first meeting of the steering group will take place on 22nd Feb at 15:00 and we kindly ask you to register here.

What are the next steps? 

An important momentum is coming next week when the European Parliament is meeting in Strasbourg to vote on the resolution to Empower the Youth.  Social Democrats, The Left and the Greens came together and prepare an amendment to the text calling for an effective and enforceable ban on unpaid internships. 

To take action follow our social media channels (FB; Twitter) and help us to spread our message targeting the MEPs from RENEW and EPP. Whatever you decide to do, do not forget to tag ETUC Youth, and use the #banunpaidinternships



Materials and visuals 

We have created a shared folder where all materials will be available. The first visuals are already there and others, including the adaptable ones (so you can use them in your languages), will be added soon. 

For more information do not hesitate to contact Lucie, the Youth Committee Coordinator, at [email protected] 

We know that this issue is something that you have been working on, and we are happy to embark on the common campaign together!!

all the best 

Tea Jarc

ETUC Youth President