EU Commissioners need to make collective bargaining compulsory in procurement revision

BRUSSELS, 12 November 2024 – EU Commissioners-designate Roxana Mînzatu and Stéphane Séjourné committed to overcoming lowest-price competition and promoting social criteria in public procurement, as Members of European Parliament questioned them on their legislative projects today. But millions of workers across the EU are looking for more: an unequivocal commitment to compulsory social criteria, in particular respect for collective bargaining, in public tenders to strengthen workers’ rights, pay and working conditions.

A little over a month before the hearings, over 1,000 essential workers from nine countries mobilised in Brussels for public procurement reform that improves pay and conditions for millions of workers across the EU. “My job is very important for the safety of the people. But my salary is far too low for the cost of living”, said security worker Youssef B at the time. “What I want is to be able to offer the best service to my customers and have a decent life for myself and my family. So the rules at European level need to change, so that my colleagues and I can finally get good working conditions!”

During the hearings, Commissioner-designate Séjourné clearly stated that “we shouldn’t just go for the lowest bid”, specifying the need to “look at working conditions and salaries” in order to “factor that into our assessment of bids”. Commissioner-designate Mînzatu intends to work with Séjourné to promote social criteria in public procurement, saying “collective bargaining is clearly the goal, offering best support and resources for workers.”

UNI Europa urges collective bargaining to be the guiding principle in the Commission’s overhaul of procurement rules. The millions of working people whose pay and working conditions are being worsened by the EU’s broken public procurement rules must not have their voices drowned out by an army of corporate lobbyists. The imbalance of the public money driving down workers’ pay and conditions must be urgently fixed.

Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, commented: “We welcome Roxana Mînzatu’s and Stéphane Séjourné’s commitment to stopping the race to the bottom through the revision of the EU’s current public procurement rules. The Commission’s reform of public procurement directives will affect the pay and conditions of millions of essential workers across the EU; those who have kept us safe, clean and fed during the Covid-19 pandemic at their own peril, and those who now suffer from the rising cost of living. They deserve clear rules that ensure public money goes to companies that respect workers and collective agreements. If approved by the European Parliament, we expect the Commissioners-designate to make respect for collective bargaining mandatory in the awarding of public contracts.”

BACKGROUND

UNI Europa research shows that half of all public tenders across the EU are awarded solely based on the lowest price, often due to procurement rules. These rules overlook the social costs to communities and undermine Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s promise of quality jobs, quality services and increasing collective bargaining coverage to “support fair wages, good working conditions, training and fair job transitions for workers”.

In an open letter, over 100 leading world-leading economists, including Thomas Piketty and Isabella Weber, diagnosed that “current procurement practices – with their dominant focus on the lowest price in tenders – create market conditions that allow bidders to disregard social criteria” and expressed their support for workers’ demands for “a reform of the EU public procurement rules that strengthens collective bargaining and improves working conditions in labour-intensive sectors”. 

During the European Parliament’s first plenary session in October, a majority of parliamentarians supported “a revision of the directives on public procurement to ensure they promote collective bargaining.”

NOTES TO EDITORS

UNI Europa is the European Trade Union Federation for 7 million service workers. It speaks for the sectors that constitute the backbone of economic and social life in Europe – including workers in security and cleaning. Headquartered in the heart of Brussels, UNI Europa represents 242 national trade unions in 50 countries. It is part of UNI Global Union.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Daniel Kopp, UNI Europa Director of Communications
daniel.kopp@uniglobalunion.org