On 14 September the European Parliament adopted in plenary the EP resolution on “Social dumping in the European Union” with 66% votes in favour.
ETF welcomes the recognition by Members of the European Parliament from across Europe – West, East, North and South -, and far beyond political boundaries, of a deeply-enrooted phenomenon which has impoverished workers, slashed their hopes for a social Europe and set ground for unfair competition in all sectors.
It is an important political signal that the EP resolution dedicates specific attention to transport and to mobile personnel, indicating this category of workers is amongst the groups more affected. It calls among others for better law enforcement in the industry, a better monitoring of working and rest time, for combatting bogus self-employment and for putting an end to discrimination based on nationality in terms of wages, working conditions and social security.
“The Balas report is the highly overdue political acknowledgement of a practice that has always been the hard reality for many workers in the concerned sectors; it was too often labelled as fictional simply because a consensus on a clear definition of social dumping could not be reached. We take this vote as a reflection of our voiced concerns, and as a result of our assiduous work. ETF will continue to be engaged in a long-term campaign for Fair Transport in Europe, carried out in parallel in all our sectors” said Eduardo Chagas, ETF General Secretary.
The ETF Fair Transport campaign and the overwhelming EP support to the Guillaume Balas report on social dumping require a swift response and real political action from the European Commission to immediately stop abuse and modern slavery in the EU transport market.