“We support essential workers’ demands for a reform of EU public procurement rules”

We, economists from around the world, support essential workers’ and their trade unions’ demands for a reform of EU public procurement rules that strengthens collective bargaining and improves working conditions in labour-intensive sectors such as cleaning, security and food services.

The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the critical economic value of outsourced workers in sectors such as cleaning, security, and food services. Yet, despite the essential workers who kept our communities safe, clean and fed during the pandemic’s darkest days, they are frequently perceived by both public and private entities as mere cost factors rather than as crucial investments into society’s health, safety and well-being. A year and a half after the WHO declared the end of Covid-19 as a global health emergency, the end of the social emergency that many essential workers face has not yet arrived.

Moreover, many essential workers are migrant workers — mostly women — and face the threat of a growing far right that uses its political power not just to push against progressive economic policies but to further stratify the labour market along lines of nationality, religion, gender, and sexual orientation.

Now, essential workers and their trade unions are mobilising to Brussels to push for a progressive reform of the EU Public Procurement Directives. 

Public procurement, or the contracting of private firms by public authorities to deliver goods and services, amounts to two trillion Euros, around 14 per cent of the European Union’s GDP. Millions of workers are employed in the EU through these contracts, and standards created through public procurement influence pay and working conditions throughout the private sector. But current procurement practices — with their dominant focus on the lowest price in tenders — create market conditions that allow bidders to disregard social criteria. The EU Public Procurement Directive’s emphasis on price as the primary award criterion marginalises other critical factors, such as labour rights and fair working conditions, which are essential for sustainable economic growth and good jobs.

As European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced a revision to public procurement guidelines in her next mandate, we support essential workers and European trade unions in their fight to ensure fair labour standards, strengthen collective bargaining and workers’ voice within these outsourced services. And we will work together with all those progressive forces seeking to improve the livelihoods and working conditions of workers regardless of their status, identity and occupation.

We therefore support the labour movement’s mobilisation to “stop the race to the bottom” in public procurement taking place in Brussels on 1 October 2024. Collective bargaining and union rights are a fundamental pillar of equitable labour markets. It is imperative that its principles are integrated and enforced across all public procurement processes.

Signed,

Thomas Piketty – Professor, EHESS, Paris School of Economics

Isabella Weber – Associate Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Jason Hickel – Professor, ICTA-UAB, Visiting Senior Fellow, London School of Economics

Jayati Ghosh – Professor, Department of Economics, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Michael Heine – Professor Emeritus of Economics, HTW Berlin, University of Applied Sciences

Ann Pettifor – Director, Policy Research in Macroeconomics (PRIME); Member, Scottish Government’s Just Transition Commission

László Andor – Economist, Secretary General, Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and former European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion

Michael Reich – Professor of Economics & Chair of the Center on Wage and Employment Dynamic, University of California, Berkeley

Benjamin Braun – Assistant Professor, London School of Economics and Political Science

Odd N. Hanssen – Economist, United Nations Development Program (UNDP)

Giorgos Galanis – Senior Lecturer in Applied Economics, Queen Mary University of London

Maria Nikolaidi – Associate Professor in Economics, University of Greenwich

Cecilia Rikap – Head of Research and Associate Professor in Economics, University College London Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

Liam Campling – Professor of International Business and Development, Queen Mary University of London

Cédric Durand – Economist, Professor of Political Economy, University of Geneva

Roberto Veneziani – Professor of Economics, Queen Mary University of London

Paul Sweeney – Economist, Former Chief Economist, Irish Congress of Trade Unions

Mike Haynes – Professor of International Political Economy, Business School, University of Wolverhampton

David Adler – Political Economist, Co-General Coordinator, Progressive International

Giorgio Ricchiuti – Professor of Political Economy, University of Florence

Yannis Dafermos – Reader in Economics, SOAS University of London

Heikki Patomäki – Professor of Global Political Economy, University of Helsinki

Giorgos Gouzoulis – Associate Professor in Human Resource Management, Queen Mary University of London

Francisco Louçã – Economist, Politician, Professor of Economics, Lisbon School of Economics and Management

Ourania Dimakou – Lecturer in Economics, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Leonardo Bargigli – Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Florence

Michalis Nikiforos – Associate Professor of Political Economy, University of Geneva

Engelbert Stockhammer – Professor of International Political Economy, King’s College London

Oisín Gilmore – Economist, Think Tank for Action on Social Change (TASC)

Karsten Kohler – Associate Professor in Economics, University of Leeds

Trevor Evans – Professor, Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law

Hansjörg Herr – Professor, Institute for International Political Economy, Berlin School of Economics and Law

Christoph Scherrer – Associate Fellow, Global Labour University

Romas Lazutka – Professor Emeritus, Vilnius University

Michelle O’Sullivan – Lecturer in Industrial Relations, University of Limerick

Christian R. Proaño – Professor, University of Bamberg

Thomas Sauer – Professor Emeritus of Economics, Ernst Abbe University of Applied Sciences, Jena

Marcella Corsi – Professor, Sapienza University of Rome

Helena Pérez Niño – International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Alessandra Mezzadri – Reader in Global Development and Political Economy, SOAS Anupam Das University of London

Marusca De Castris – Associate Professor of Economic Statistics, Roma Tre University

Caroline Hambloch – Doctor or Economics, Humboldt University Berlin

Susan Newman – Professor of Economics, Open University

Steve Keen – Honorary Professor, University College London

Hielke Van Doorslaer – University of Ghent & Minerva Think Tank

Sara Stevano – Development & Feminist Political Economist, Senior Lecturer in Economics, SOAS University of London

Irene van Staveren – Professor of Pluralist Development Economics, Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Gerry McCartney – Professor of Wellbeing Economy, University of Glasgow

Stephanie Seguino – Professor Emerita of Economics, University of Vermont

Julie Metta – Postdoctoral Researcher in Circular Economy, KULeuven & Tilburg University 

Olga Alonso-Villar – Professor of Economics, University of Vigo

Karin Schönpflug – Economics & Researcher, FH Campus Wien

Grace Blakeley – Economist and author

Helena Martínez-Cabrera – Phd Candidate and Research Assistant in Economic Development and Regional Integration, University of Santiago de Compostela

Kanchana N Ruwanpura – Professor at the Human Geography Department, University of Gothenburg

Alexandre Abreu – Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, ISEG, University of Lisbon

Günseli Berik – Professor Emerita, University of Utah

Samanthi J. Gunawardana – Senior Lecturer Gender and Development, School of Social Science, Monash University

Roberto Ruiz Blum – Professor, University of Guayaquil

Vicente Ferreira – Professor, Sapienza University of Rome

Coral del Río Otero – Professor, University of Vigo

Tolga Tören – Research Associate, University of Kassel

Ingrid Harvold Kvangraven – Associate Professor in International Development, King’s College London

Níall Glynn – Economist, Founder of the Working Class Economists Group, Researcher at UNITE the Union

Dirk Ehnts – Lecturer, Torrens University, Adelaide

Ozlem Onaran – Professor of Economics, University of Greenwich

Mark Weisbrot – Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Miriam Rehm – Professor of Socio-Economics, University of Duisburg-Essen

Narender Thakur – Professor of Economics, Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar College, University of Delhi

Arthur MacEwan – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Massachusetts Boston

Eduardo Strachman – Associate Professor of Economics, São Paulo State University

John Miller – Professor of Economics, Wheaton College

Venkatesh Athreya – Economist & Activist, Tamil Nadu

Gustavo Indart – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Toronto

Mary C. King – Emerita Professor of Economics, Portland State University

Mritiunjoy Mohanty – Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal

Julie Cai – Economist, Center for Economic and Policy Research

PN (Raja) Junankar – Emeritus Professor, Western Sydney University, Honorary Professor, UNSW Canberra

Alan Aja – Professor, Brooklyn College, City University of New York

Lara Merling – Senior Research Fellow, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Martial Toniotti – PHD Candidate and Teaching Assistant & Economist, UCLouvain

Eileen Appelbaum – Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research

Jim Campen – Professor of Economics, Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston

Marcos Vasconcelos – Associate professor of Economics, Florida State University

Armine Yalnizyan – Economist and Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers

Gerald Friedman – Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Garry Sran – Economist and Researcher, Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario

Anupam Das – Professor of Economics, Mount Royal University

Audrey Laurin-Lamothe – Associate Professor, Business and Society program, Department of Social Science, York University

Zagros Madjd-Sadjadi – Professor of Economics, Winston-Salem State University, and former Chief Economist, City and County of San Francisco

Michelle Holder – Associate Professor of Economics, John Jay College, City University of New York

Gabor Scheiring – Assistant Professor, Georgetown University Qatar

Patrick L. Mason – Professor Economics, University of Massachusetts – Amherst

Brenda Wyss – Professor of Economics, Wheaton College

Louis-Philippe Rochon – Professor of Economics – Laurentian University

Jim Stanford – Director, Centre for Future Work

Mario Seccareccia – Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Ottawa

Sem Vandekerckhove – Senior Researcher, HIVA-KU Leuven

Sam de Muijnck – Director, Centre for Economy Studies and Our New Economy

Stefano Filauro – Post-doctoral researcher, Bocconi University 

Brent Bleys – Associate Professor of Ecological Economics, Ghent University

Thomas Marois – Professor of Political Economy and Canada Research Chair, McMaster University

Sotiria Theodoropoulou – Head of Unit European Economic, Employment and Social Policies, European Trade Union Institute