Essential workers from across Europe to rally in Brussels for better EU procurement rules

On 1 October 2024, 1,000 essential workers – cleaners, security guards and food service employees – from nine countries across Europe will rally in Brussels to change EU public procurement rules that have fueled “a race to the bottom” for working conditions. Workers complain of low wages, dangerous workloads and a lack of recognition for keeping communities safe, clean and fed during the Covid-19 pandemic’s darkest days. They demand that public contracts should only be given to companies that respect collective agreements.

Public procurement, or the contracting of private firms by public authorities to deliver goods and services, amounts to two trillion Euros, around 14 per cent of the European Union’s GDP. Millions of workers are employed in the EU through these contracts, and standards created through public procurement influence pay and working conditions throughout the private sector. Now, essential workers days are coming together in Brussels pushing for much-needed reforms of the EU Public Procurement Directive, which Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced for her next term.

A year and a half after the WHO declared the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency, the end of the social emergency that many essential workers face has not yet arrived. 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, services and increasing collective bargaining coverage to “support fair wages, good working conditions, training and fair job transitions for workers”.

Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of trade union federation UNI Europa said:

“The EU’s current public procurement rules make companies compete for the lowest price, often at the expense of their workers. Instead, public money should be an investment into good jobs and clean, safe and healthy communities. Now, essential workers are coming to Brussels to demand exactly that: public contracts have to respect collective bargaining. By changing EU public procurement rules, we can begin to put a stop to the race to the bottom.”

Location: Place Jean Rey, 1040 Brussels

Time: 12pm 

Organisers: UNI Europa (EU), EFFAT (EU), FGTB-ABVV (Belgium), ACV-CSC (Belgium), CGSLB-ACLVB (Belgium), CFDT Services (France), IG BAU (Germany), ver.di (Germany), OGB-L (Luxembourg), FNV Schonmaak (Netherlands), NAF (Norway), CGIL Filcams (Italy), UGT-FeSMC (Spain), PAM (Finland)

For more information, please contact UNI Europa Director of Communications Daniel Kopp.