Post by buccaneer on Feb 26, 2023 0:37:11 GMT
'Cheaper is better for EU'. FoM is from the same box.
euobserver.com/health-and-society/156755
Around €2 trillion is spent each year on the award of public contracts, generally linked to the service sector — that's 13 percent of the EU's GDP.
Yet before Covid-19, half of tenders in Europe were being awarded simply based on a "most economically-advantageous" criteria, as recorded on the tenders' electronic daily (TED) database.
That approach ignores minimum working conditions, as some companies undercut workers' conditions and wages in order to bid low prices to win public contracts, according to UNI Europa (a regional union representing seven million workers in the services sector).
That's generally for three reasons, the union states.
First, the 2014 directive regulating EU public procurement does not require contractors to comply with fundamental labour rights.
Second, it is left to national, regional, or local authorities to decide whether to respect collective bargaining agreements.
And third, because the same applies to compliance with social criteria.
In practice, this is likely to have a detrimental effect on workers—but it also impacts on state coffers and competitiveness of the businesses themselves.
For example, Denmark awarded all interpretation services to a new and cheaper supplier that required all employees to work as self-employed, and at lower rates. When many of them refused the conditions, the company had to withdraw from the contract, the federation's report details.
And it's not only Denmark. In the Netherlands, during Covid-19, call centre operators commissioned by the Dutch government were underpaid and had no toilet breaks or entitlement to pension contributions, according to the Netherlands trade union confederation (FNV).
Yet before Covid-19, half of tenders in Europe were being awarded simply based on a "most economically-advantageous" criteria, as recorded on the tenders' electronic daily (TED) database.
That approach ignores minimum working conditions, as some companies undercut workers' conditions and wages in order to bid low prices to win public contracts, according to UNI Europa (a regional union representing seven million workers in the services sector).
That's generally for three reasons, the union states.
First, the 2014 directive regulating EU public procurement does not require contractors to comply with fundamental labour rights.
Second, it is left to national, regional, or local authorities to decide whether to respect collective bargaining agreements.
And third, because the same applies to compliance with social criteria.
In practice, this is likely to have a detrimental effect on workers—but it also impacts on state coffers and competitiveness of the businesses themselves.
For example, Denmark awarded all interpretation services to a new and cheaper supplier that required all employees to work as self-employed, and at lower rates. When many of them refused the conditions, the company had to withdraw from the contract, the federation's report details.
And it's not only Denmark. In the Netherlands, during Covid-19, call centre operators commissioned by the Dutch government were underpaid and had no toilet breaks or entitlement to pension contributions, according to the Netherlands trade union confederation (FNV).
