Private Security: Joint Declaration on Public Procurement and Collective Bargaining

UNI Europa and CoESS, the social partners in the private security sector, have emitted a joint declaration on Public Procurement and Collective Bargaining.

Oliver Roethig, Regional Secretary of UNI Europa, said:

“Competition should be about doing things better, not about cutting corners. When companies compete for public tenders, they should not be incentivised to drive down working conditions. Yet this is the situation which results from the EU’s broken public procurement rules. The EU Public Procurement Directive places price above all other considerations. Our work with CoESS shows the way forward. Collective bargaining is the central pillar of decent work and it is through decent work that we can ensure quality services. It anticipates and resolves problems and crucially puts a floor of decency under working people. As a starting point, collective bargaining should be strengthened in publicly procured contracts.”

Eduardo Cobas Urcelay, Second Vice Chairman of CoESS and Chair of the Social Dialogue Committee, said:

“Collective bargaining is crucial to provide qualitative working conditions and services in the private security industry. CoESS believes that its promotion is key to find solutions for a just transition and sustainability, both for workers and businesses. But we can only successfully promote collective bargaining, if it is valued in public procurement practices. Unfortunately, this is still often not the case. Procurement practices considering low costs only provide room for some bidders in the market to ignore social criteria, weakening the impact and value of collective bargaining. Member States should therefore exclude the use of the lowest price criterion only for the award of tenders in essential services and labour-intensive industries such as Private Security. The promotion of collective bargaining and enforcement of best value procurement is at the core of our EU Sectoral Social Dialogue with UNI Europa, and this call to action to the EU Institutions to consider an adjustment of EU procurement rules is an important milestone in this regard.”

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