Cleanzine: your weekly cleaning and hygiene industry newsletter 18th April 2024 Issue no. 1110
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MEPs urge action against social dumping
EU member states should coordinate better to stop firms from illegally cutting costs at the expense of workers' rights, say MEPs.
With stubbornly low levels of growth and continued lack of competiveness in many European economies, social dumping is a burning issue. This is when enterprises undermine local traditional labour markets and their social levels by using cheaper, often migrant workers for production, or by moving production to a low-wage third country, then importing their products. Employees pay the price of certain governments' inaction in the face of needed structural reforms and the social dumping that unfortunately exists in Europe.
To flourish, businesses need a favourable fiscal and social environment which is not paralysed by one thing or another, say the MEPs. At this month's plenary session they argued that social dumping leads to big distortions of the single market. They want such measures as letter box companies, which injure the prospects of SMEs, banned.
"How is it possible to realise re-industrialisation when we are dealing with so many free trade agreements that offer so many advantages to other countries from around the world, and it's even cheaper to produce in those countries than inside the EU?" asks one.
They want increased domestic and cross-border labour controls and inspections and better information exchange. "Europe says it wants social progress; now Europe needs to achieve it," challenges another.
This move is what is known as an 'own initiative report', which can only encourage the European Commission to act and not force its hand.
22nd September 2016