Hospital cleaners left without the proper equipment to do their job properly and hygienically at the height of the COVID crisis.

Call center operators who didn't have the right to toilet breaks.

Cleaners forced to work around the clock to the point where they ended up having to sleep at the workplace.

Apart from the abysmal working conditions described here,

what these cases from different EU countries have in common is that they concern work that was contracted out by a public authority to the lowest price bidder, creating ripe conditions for cost-cutting and for exploitation.

The European Commission recently launched an evaluation of the 2014 directives which shape the rules around public procurement,

the process by which public contracts are put out to tender.

Trade unions have called for a revision that ensures the inclusion of criteria based on quality rather than on only price.

In particular, they have argued that these rules can be used as a tool to improve labor conditions

and promote collective bargaining, rather than allowing some employers to be undercut by those who show less respect for workers' rights and for trade union engagement.

I spoke to Nicholas Bruhn, professor of law at the Hancon School of Economics in Helsinki,

about his recent paper for the ETI on how EU public procurement law can be improved to promote collective bargaining.

While Stander's Begilleri, Director of Policy and Research at Uni Europa,

lends us some further insight into how the

current problems play out on the ground.

Amidst all the technicalities, it's important to remember that at its core, this is a very

fundamental debate about how public money should be used and to what end.

I'm your host, Bethany Staunton, and you're listening to ETI

podcast, Voices on the World of Work. Nicholas, welcome to the show today. Thank you for having me.

We are discussing an important issue. Yes, we are. Could you start by giving us a bit of an overview as to why

the issue of public procurement is such a

big concern for trade unions? Public procurement is covering big money. The Commission estimates that

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