subcontracting

On 20 July, the European Commission published the second-stage consultation to gather the views of trade unions and employers’ organisations on how to improve the quality of jobs in the EU. This is a further step towards a Quality Jobs Act, a possibly legislative proposal on some key issues that need to be addressed to address major shortcomings in the labour markets across the EU. This is topical in transport, where the serious, structural labour shortages the sector has known for decades are in fact a due to a shortage of quality jobs.

The recent announcement of collective layoffs at UPS has sparked widespread outrage. The logistics company plans on eliminating over half of the Belgian workforce to increasingly rely on subcontracted labour. For trade unions, this restructuring goes far beyond standard reorganisation. It is part of a deliberate strategy of social dumping.

The action was organised to mobilise support ahead of the upcoming vote on the European Parliament's own-initiative report on subcontracting and intermediaries, and to urge the European Commission to propose a binding EU initiative to limit contracting and subcontracting, regulate labour intermediation, and ensure equal treatment and fair competition across the EU labour market.

Today, union federations EFBWW, EFFAT, and ETF, along with workers and MEPs, gathered outside the European Parliament to show their support ahead of the EMPL Committee vote on the report addressing abusive subcontracting and unregulated labour intermediation. The mobilisation highlighted the urgency of EU action.

ETF is committed to continuing fighting against the exploitation of workers in logistics and calls on policymakers and employers to ensure that workers' rights are respected. Together with its affiliates, ETF will be advocating for the rights of logistics workers during a dedicated week of action across Europe to mark this year’s International Day for Decent Work on October 7th.

Unions are ready to negotiate, but are e-commerce companies ready? This year’s best Black Friday deal would be one where e-commerce companies sit down and talk to unions about providing dignity at work for the millions of warehouse and delivery workers working around the clock this 25 November.