Dr. Saskia Peters project coordinator and lead researcher of project team for European Commission
Dr. Saskia Peters is lead researcher of the project team on the ‘Study on the protection of workers’ rights in subcontracting processes in the European Union’.
Dr. Saskia Peters is lead researcher of the project team on the ‘Study on the protection of workers’ rights in subcontracting processes in the European Union’.
The University of Amsterdam and the Ghent University have formed a consortium which has won a European tender for this study and has signed the contract with the European Commission in April 2011 (EC - DG EMPL project VT/2010/063). Saskia Peters is member of the steering group and project coordinator; furthermore she participates as national expert for the Netherlands (together with Lucy van de Berg, VU University). The study team consists of more than 30 experts from 28 countries (all of the EU-Member States and Norway). A kick-off meeting with the European Commission has been taken place in Brussels on 11 April 2011; a meeting with the national experts has been organized in Ghent on 5 May 2011.
During the last decades the Member States of the European Union have witnessed a rapid growth of subcontracting as a method for firms to externalize certain tasks, encompassing increasingly long chains of interconnected companies. Due to the steadily evolving integration and enlargement of the internal market, leading to a greater movement of capital and labour across countries, subcontracting chains more and more often involve companies from different Member States. The phenomenon is particularly widespread in the construction sector but it is also a common feature of other economic sectors such as transport and the cleaning industry. On the one hand, subcontracting has been encouraged by national and European policy makers and stakeholders because of the flexibility it creates for companies which was deemed to benefit economic activity and job creation. On the other hand, the growing use of subcontracting led to concerns about the possible deterioration of workers’ rights at the lower ends of long subcontracting chains, since the client and/or the principal contractor have no direct legal and social responsibility for the payment of wages, taxes and social security contributions on behalf of the employees of their subcontractors.
The overall objective of this project is to analyse and assess the objectives, functioning and effectiveness of existing mechanisms, notably joined and several liability and chain liability schemes, with respect to ensuring the protection of workers' rights in subcontracting processes in the EU and Norway. On the basis of a comparative study, the analysis will further focus on the degree of effectiveness of provisions of subcontracting and identify features, which are common to several Member States. The study shall also formulate recommendations for possible improvements in the protection of workers' rights in the framework of subcontracting, particularly in cross-border situations.