ETUC: Low Wages Leave 3 Million Workers in EU Without Heating, Bulgaria in Second Place

Due to the low salaries they receive, almost three million people in the European Union cannot afford to heat their homes, even though they work. This shows an analysis of Eurostat data from the European Trade Union Institute, published by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC).

The analysis is published on the website of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria / CITUB /. It is made against the backdrop of rising energy prices in Europe.

At the beginning of autumn and on the eve of winter, 15 percent of the working poor in Europe will not be able to turn on heating. This percentage is equal to 2,713,578 people across Europe, warn the ETUC.

The situation has worsened in a dozen EU member states over the past decade, and now the sharp rise in electricity prices in Europe risks leading to even more energy poverty, the ETUC predicts.

The data show that Bulgaria is in second place on the list with the highest percentage of working poor who cannot afford heating. The ranking is as follows: Cyprus - 45.6 percent (14,398 workers), Bulgaria - 42.8 percent (129,990 workers), Lithuania - 34.5 percent (35,371 workers), Portugal - 30.6 percent (157,612 employees), Greece - 28.7 percent (122,323 employees), Italy - 26.1 percent (833,311 employees). The largest percentage increase in the working poor who cannot afford heating has been in Croatia since 2009 with a growth of 16.5 percent, followed by Cyprus - 10 percent, Lithuania - 7.9 percent, Slovakia - 7.8 percent, Spain - 6 percent.

Rising energy prices make EU decisive action on wages even more urgent, the ETUC said. The Confederation calls on the European Parliament to protect workers from energy poverty by introducing a "threshold of dignity" in the draft...

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