The European Commission presented the Quality Jobs Roadmap on 4 December 2025. Social Platform welcomes the roadmap and believes that it is an important first step for creating and promoting quality jobs. It must now be complemented by concrete actions and legislative proposals in 2026 to deliver the Roadmap. In November 2025, we published a policy position paper in which we outlined how a bold Quality Jobs Roadmap can build a fairer, more resilient labour market and help deliver on the promise of the European Pillar of Social Rights.
It is encouraging to see that attention is being paid to protecting workers’ health and safety, ensuring adequate wages and strong social protection, and adapting the labour market to the technological and environmental challenges we face. However, the debate on promoting quality jobs is mainly driven by the need to increase productivity and competitiveness. Social Platform believes that quality jobs are needed to contribute to the wellbeing of people and the sustainability of the planet, rather than being driven solely by the logic of competitiveness and economic growth.
We welcome the openness to adopt a future headline target to monitor progress in improving working conditions, based on the Employment Committee’s opinion on the quality dimension of work, which is one of the indicators we had recommended using in our paper on the topic. This headline target should be adopted in the upcoming new Action Plan on the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. While the Roadmap acknowledges that job quality is a multidimensional concept, it fails to provide a clear definition of what constitutes quality work. It refers to the need to create, promote and maintain quality jobs, yet does not specify their defining features or the concrete standards that they should meet.
We also welcome the recognition of the risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and algorithmic management at work. AI deployment in the workplace must always respect the “human in control” principle. AI can support decision-making, but ultimate responsibility and final decisions must remain with humans. We support proposals for greater regulation of algorithmic management in the workplace. The European Parliament has also recently called for a European legislative proposal on algorithmic management.
The Roadmap also addresses upskilling and reskilling of workers as tools to tackle labour market challenges and there is a focus on green and technological skills, with the stated aim of achieving a just transition. To guarantee real progress, the EU needs a comprehensive Just Transition Policy Framework (JTPF). Such a framework should build on the 2022 Council Recommendation on ensuring a fair transition towards climate neutrality (Fair Transition Recommendation) and encompass social protection, strong public services and support for not-for-profit social services, workers’ rights, civil society participation, civil and social dialogue, adequate public financing with strong environmental and social conditionalities, support for the social economy, and inclusive policymaking. A Just Transition Directive (JTD) is urgently needed to proactively anticipate and manage changes in the world of work. The JTD should serve as a legal tool to support workers through the transitions and to reinforce collective bargaining and social dialogue as central pillars of a fair process. It would strengthen the rights of workers and ensure that they have a meaningful say in decisions that affect their jobs and futures.
Broad recognition has been given to workplace safety, the need to extend social protection, and the importance of safeguarding decent wages as essential tools to tackle rising living costs and reduce in-work poverty. In general, these are fundamental aspects of ensuring the well-being of workers. The Roadmap also refers to the right to disconnect, work-life balance and the importance of workers’ well-being, which remain key issues for us in ensuring the protection of workers’ private lives.
The explicit recognition of labour exploitation, highlighting its persistence both in subcontracting chains and in third countries, is particularly positive. The reference to the revision of the public procurement directive is particularly relevant, as it recognises the structural vulnerabilities that enable exploitation and the need for stronger safeguards throughout the supply chain to stop it. We wish to reiterate our call to revise the EU Public Procurement Directive to prioritise social and environmental criteria over lowest price, with mandatory social clauses and market reservations for underrepresented group.
Despite the focus on gender equality and calls for increased labour market participation, the Roadmap does not address the inequalities and discrimination affecting all the most vulnerable groups in a structural way, nor does it adopt an intersectional approach that takes into account the overlap of multiple factors of exclusion. Inclusion is treated primarily as a tool to address labour shortages, rather than as a matter of equity, rights and equal opportunities throughout the entire career path.
Although the role of the social economy is mentioned, it is not given adequate or systematic consideration. Key actors such as work integration social enterprises (WISEs) and other social economy organisations, whose contribution to inclusion, the prevention of exploitation and the support of vulnerable workers is essential to any comprehensive approach to quality work, are largely absent from the Roadmap’s concrete priorities and measures. The role that civil society can play in creating and sustaining quality jobs has not been sufficiently recognised by the Roadmap. The coming months represent an opportunity to meaningfully engage with and consult civil society as the Quality Jobs Act proposal is drafted.
To sum up, the overall focus is skewed towards economic growth and competitiveness. Whilst the Roadmap mentions some relevant factors of job quality, it also misses important aspects that Social Platform had identified in its policy position preceding the proposal. In order to increase quality jobs in the EU, the European Commission needs to complement the Roadmap with concrete actions and legislation in 2026 and allocate sufficient funding through the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). The Quality Jobs Act is an opportunity for the EU to lead the way for quality employment if it is an ambitious proposal to drive real change. Further legislative proposals including a Just Transition Directive and a revision of the Public Procurement Directive are needed to adapt to the changing world of work and to tackle exploitation.
