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Uni Europa joined trade unions and workers today, in a European demonstration against the exploitation of cross-border workers and social dumping. This practice has become common among businesses. Companies take advantage of loopholes in European legislation and different social protection regimes across Europe to circumvent the proper application of workers’ rights.



Fraudulent posting of workers is used as a means to cut costs, exploit workers, and deprive them of their fundamental social rights. Social dumping generates distortions in the market and sets workers against other workers. The demonstration raises awareness to alert European policy-makers and bring these exploitative practices to an end.



The enforcement of the Posting of Workers directive is the tip of the iceberg. Posting workers as such creates distortions and does not guarantee the application of collective agreements across borders. UNI Europa Regional Secretary, Oliver Roethig, said: “The EU is continuously pushing for a liberalised Single Market. The exploitation of cross-border workers by irresponsible employers shows the need for urgent legislation protecting them. The Single Market must not be an excuse for social dumping. It’s too easily forgotten that it is not only construction and transport workers that are exploited. Nowadays we find more and more service workers in commerce, cleaning and logistics that are posted in other countries under totally un-decent conditions.”



The demonstration to stop the exploitation of workers and to end social dumping gathered trade unions and workers from across Europe in a massive rally in the Brussels headquarters. It sketched out a unified response against the pursuit of these exploitative practices that undermine the respect of fundamental labour rights.