Final April, round 60 drivers of Uzbek and Georgian origin protested for over a month at a motorway relaxation space close to the German metropolis of Frankfurt.
Their Polish employer failed to supply them with minimal working situations and had not paid their wages for weeks.
This transport group was a subcontractor throughout the provide chain of huge multinationals akin to Volkswagen.
On a bigger scale, through the summer season of 2022, the exploitation of a gaggle of non-EU employees in a manufacturing facility within the Belgian metropolis of Antwerp was revealed.
Migrants from international locations akin to Turkey, Bangladesh and Ukraine have been underpaid or unpaid, had no work safety and suffered from dangerous housing.
These practices are “now not the exception within the European Union”, wrote leftwing MEP Marc Botenga in an op-ed for EUobserver.
Subcontracting just isn’t dangerous in itself. It was initially conceived as a manner of outsourcing duties for which the primary firm was not specialised, or as a brief answer to a market want.
However its use has modified lately.
“At the moment, subcontracting is usually used to really rent and discover low cost and precarious labour,” Tom Deleu, normal secretary of the European Federation of Constructing and Woodworkers (EFBWW), instructed EUobserver.
“It was a clear brief chain with a primary contractor and some corporations,” Deleu mentioned. “Now it’s a lengthy and really advanced chain.”
The shift in corporations’ use of subcontracting complicates enforcement — one of many primary issues recognized by a examine commissioned by the EU government to have a look at the best way to enhance the regulation of subcontracting within the EU.
The examine has not but been revealed, however was introduced within the European Parliament final week (Tuesday, Might 30) at an occasion on subcontracting organised by the S&D group and the EFBWW.
“Subcontracting can be utilized to extend earnings by decreasing prices, resulting in downward wage stress,” attendees heard.
The follow is most prevalent in price-sensitive and labour-intensive sectors akin to development, manufacturing or meat-processing, says Monica Andriescu, one of many authors.
One other examine, commissioned by The Left group, notes: “Subcontracting makes controls by labour inspectors tougher, because the relationships between corporations are sometimes unclear and the related labour legal guidelines and dealing situations are obfuscated”.
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Lengthy provide chains make it troublesome to hint abuses and determine the precise employers and other people chargeable for them.
Subcontracting permits corporations to realize energy and earnings with out taking over the related dangers and tasks, highlights the examine known as: ‘Subcontracting: exploitation by design. Tackling the enterprise mannequin of social dumping’.
A state of affairs that stems from each breaches of laws, but additionally from gaps within the laws, and even from the absence of a social clause to make sure that public procurement (and taxpayers’ cash) ensures good working situations.
For the EFBWW, now is an efficient time to make sure that direct and subcontracted employees have the identical working situations, because the fee is reviewing the Posted Employees Directive.
It is a “imprecise” regulation that’s “interpreted in a different way” by member states and employers, limiting commerce union motion and collective agreements, Socialists & Democrats MEP Ilan de Basso instructed EUobserver.
“We want to see a laws at EU stage that limits subcontracting to most one or two ranges, to what’s wanted technically talking,” Deleu mentioned.
Such provisions exist already in international locations akin to Italy, Belgium and Spain, however with out European laws to strengthen nationwide guidelines, there can be no minimal situations assured within the 27 international locations.
Furthermore, legal responsibility guidelines, the instrument utilized by posted employees to assert their rights, usually are not all the time efficient due to their scope and conditionality.
In a brand new coverage temporary from the European Federation of Meals, Agriculture and Tourism Commerce Unions (EFFTA), authors suggest “changing the present fragmented strategy to subcontracting chain legal responsibility with a normal EU system of joint and several other (full chain) legal responsibility masking each cross-border and home conditions”.
The conclusions of the fee’s examine additionally set out a lot of essential factors for future consideration — akin to offering extra data and transparency in provide chains and enhancing information assortment to grasp the size of the state of affairs and make comparisons throughout borders.
