EU citizens want public money to strengthen workers’ pay and conditions
A new survey commissioned by UNI Europa finds a large majority of EU citizens in support of social public procurement.
A Europe-wide survey commissioned by UNI Europa and released today finds that a large majority of EU citizens (72%) are in favour of public procurement that strengthens workers’ livelihoods through collective bargaining.
The survey comes as the European Commission sets out to reform EU procurement rules that govern the awarding of public contracts to private companies. Its results support calls from workers and trade unions for social clauses in procurement rules that prioritise companies with collective agreements, while excluding union-busting and undercutting companies.
“These findings are an urgent call to action. The European Commission should listen to European voters: public money should support quality jobs, not companies that undermine fair competition and bust unions,” said Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa. He added: “The best way of doing so is by prioritising decent employers that have a collective agreement with their workers.”
Millions of workers are employed in the EU through public contracts. Public procurement creates standards that influence pay and working conditions throughout the private sector.
The survey’s key findings:
- 65% of respondents want public contracts to be awarded based on price, quality, green and social criteria
- Of those criteria, wages and working conditions is the number one priority with 46.4% of respondents saying it would justify a higher price
- 83% of respondents want union busters and underpaying companies to be excluded
- 72% of respondents want public authorities to prioritise companies with collective agreements
- The proportion of citizens who want public tenders to take into account factors other than price has increased significantly from 52% to 65% since a similar survey in 2011.
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Open in new tab The survey was commissioned by UNI Europa, the European Services Workers Union representing 7 million workers across Europe, and conducted by the independent polling firm Opinea. It gathered responses from over 6,080 respondents across six European countries: Czechia, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland and Spain.
Their preferences for making procurement more social align with demands by workers and trade unions. On 1 October 2024, over 1,000 essential workers from nine countries mobilised in Brussels for public procurement reform that improves pay and conditions. UNI Europa research, however, has shown that half of all public tenders across the EU are awarded solely based on the lowest price, often due to procurement rules.
In an open letter, over 100 world-leading economists, including Thomas Piketty and Isabella Weber, criticised the “dominant focus on the lowest price in tenders”, supporting workers’ demands for a reform that “strengthens collective bargaining”. Even employers’ organisations across the labour-intensive cleaning, security and catering industries stress the need to move away from only focusing on price.
“European citizens are joining essential workers, world-leading economists and employers to say: EU rules should stop focusing on the lowest price only, but set standards on working conditions, pay and quality across the economy,” concluded Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary. “This is also advance the Commission’s goal to simplify the rules: clear quality criteria, such as respect for collective bargaining agreements, will not just cut red tape but improve pay and conditions for Europe’s millions of services workers.”
About UNI Europa
UNI Europa is the voice for the 7 million service workers that constitute the backbone of economic and social life in Europe. It is the regional body of UNI Global Union.
Headquartered in the heart of Brussels, Belgium, UNI Europa represents 272 national trade unions in 50 countries in over a dozen economic sectors.
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Dear Colleagues,
We would like to invite you to the sector workshop for ICTS in the framework of the UNI Europa project on “Fair Working Time Matters” (FATIMA). The event will take place on 29 April 2025 in Leuven, Belgium. The meeting will start at 09:00 CEST and end at 16:30 CEST.