A thousand essential workers from all over the EU gathered in Brussels on Tuesday 1 October to demand a revision of the European directive on public procurement and the introduction of social criteria to ensure better pay and working conditions.
Nearly 1,000 cleaners, security guards and catering staff, including from the European institutions, accompanied by trade unions such as UNI Europa and the FGTB, gathered on Place Jean Rey, near the Council of the EU, to call on Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to keep her promise to review this tool. The workers came from nine EU countries.
Taking the floor one after the other, they called on Ms von der Leyen to put an end to the race for “the lowest prices” at the expense of working conditions, and to develop collective agreements for these workers. They also felt that the shortage of workers in these sectors was linked to pay and working conditions.
And they said they were “vigilant” about the President’s commitments, promising to keep up the pressure.
For the moment, there is no clear timetable for this new directive, which was announced in July as part of the President-elect’s policy guidelines.
For some participants at the event, which was attended by Belgian, French and Finnish MEPs Estelle Ceulemans (S&D), Leïla Chaibi (The Left) and Li Andersson (The Left) - who also chairs Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee - it is also important to ensure that this revision does indeed introduce social criteria, even though Ms von der Leyen has not explicitly indicated it would.
Stéphane Séjourné, the French Commissioner-designate who could become Executive Vice-President in charge of Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, has been tasked with drafting this new directive. Some demonstrators hoped that the Commission’s DG EMPL would be involved in this work.
“We know from essential workers about the pervasive low pay and social insecurity created by the EU’s current public procurement rules. These problems are the same throughout Europe. They are caused by poor European regulation and therefore require an EU-wide solution”, commented Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)