Every year, public authorities in the EU spend 14 per cent of GDP – around 2 trillion euros – on purchases of goods and services. That’s a lot of money – and a powerful lever for strengthening collective bargaining. The EU's minimum wage law has set an 80 per cent target for collective bargaining coverage across member states. Public procurement is one of the most effective ways of reaching it.

Since the launch of UNI's Europa's #ProcuringDecentWork campaign three years ago, over 180 Members of European Parliament, an EMPL Committee study, the European Court of Auditors, researchers, experts, social partners in cleaning, security and catering all support a change in EU public procurement rules.

Now, as Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission has announced a revision of the public procurement directives, it is time to turn words into actions. On 1 October, more than 1,000 essential workers – cleaners, security guards and food service employees – from nine European countries rallied in Brussels, demanding that the Commission act to improve pay and conditions for millions of workers through procurement reform.

We now ask you, as a Member of European Parliament, to pledge to work towards such a pro-worker reform.

Since the Covid-19 crisis, care workers, cleaners, call centre workers, logistics and postal workers, security guards and all essential workers have been risking their lives to keep our society going. At the same time, they are among the lowest paid and most precarious workers in the EU. Many of them work in publicly procured projects.

Yet too many essential workers are left without a voice. In this way, these companies not only become less accountable to their own workers but also the general public. Meanwhile other companies are forced to also drive down workers’ pay and conditions in order to compete.

Public funding must not be complicit in fuelling this race to the bottom. Public contracts should not go to companies that seek a competitive advantage by suppressing workers' say and driving poverty wages and sub-standard working conditions.

As a Member of the European Parliament, I pledge to work towards ensuring that companies can only be awarded public contracts if they have implemented collective agreements. I support the campaign to change EU public procurement rules to ensure:

• no public contracts for companies without collective agreements;
• a clear political undertaking by the European Commission for this simple change now, followed by a swift legislative initiative.