21.4.2019 Putting Europe’s invisible precariat in the spotlight • Social Europe https://www.socialeurope.eu/europes-invisible-precariat 1/4 Social Europe politics, economy and employment & labour by Mark Bergfeld and Jaana Ylitalo on 18th April 2019  @mdbergfeld Mark Bergfeld Cleaners and security workers belong at the heart of the political agenda in the forthcoming European elections. The European Commission’s latest Employment and Social Developments in Europe report reveals record employment in the EU, with nearly 240 million Europeans in employment in 2018. Yet, there is little reason to celebrate this much-touted number: both high-paying and low-paying jobs are on the rise, while the availability of medium-earning jobs is shrinking rapidly. This should sound the alarm bells for national governments and the commission. After all, ‘medium-earning’ jobs provided working families with unprecedented economic stability, ultimately turning these groups of workers into the backbone of democracies in western Europe. It is often forgotten that workers in these jobs enjoyed sectoral collective agreements and their wages were linked to increases in productivity—a distant dream for today’s European precariat. Portuguese cleaners, for example, have been struggling for a collective agreement for 14 years now. Security, cleaning and facility management remain one of the key areas of employment growth across Europe. Robots will not replace cleaners and security workers any time soon. Industry and academic studies conﾕrm that at present cleaning robots are only eﾞcient for large spaces such as airports and Putting Europe’s invisible precariat in the spotlight