The least the public should be able to expect is for the world’s biggest companies to not receive public money without being held to the same standards as a family-run farm.
March 26, 2024 4:00 am CET
Esther Lynch is general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.
Amazon bosses finally got a taste of their own medicine when their lobbyists were banned from the European Parliament last month, after the company refused to attend a parliamentary hearing about working conditions in its warehouses.
During the hearing, Amazon workers told members of Parliament how they were “considered robots,” tasked with achieving impossible productivity targets under constant surveillance. Moreover, the company has blocked both trade union representatives and MEPs from visiting its warehouses to see or organize action over said conditions.
The truth is, Amazon has acted with impunity for too long, and the Parliament’s decision sends a strong message that no company is above the rules.
However, it still won’t hit Amazon where it really hurts: in its pocket.
Firstly, Amazon employs a dozen consultancies and spends at least €2 million a year for them to lobby on its behalf in Brussels. So this ban clearly needs to be extended to the consultants lobbying for Amazon as well.
And, most importantly, despite all this, Amazon will keep receiving millions in taxpayer money from both the EU and national governments across the Continent.
Over the last decade, the EU has awarded Amazon hundreds of contracts. For example, in 2020, the bloc awarded the company an IT contract worth €58 million, following a “restricted” rather than open tender procedure — essentially receiving preferential access to public contracts rather than being penalized for its punishing working conditions.
This is an astonishing state of affairs when, that same year, the multinational’s Luxembourg-based entity, in charge of running its European business, didn’t pay a cent in corporate tax in Europe despite registering record income.
And while Amazon did pay around £14 million in tax in the U.K. in 2019, this pales into insignificance when compared to the £1 billion in public contracts it has received since 2012.
This is far from an isolated case. Companies named and shamed for workers’ rights violations by the International Trade Union Confederation last year have all received in excess of €1 billion in EU funding over the last decade.
For example, Amazon was most recently found in breach of the EU’s own General Data Protection Regulation legislation, after setting up an excessively intrusive system for monitoring employee activity and performance, as well as illegal video surveillance.
Moreover, the eyewatering sums of public money being dished out to big business like this, with few checks or balances, is in stark contrast to the tightening of rules in relation to the EU’s agriculture budget.
Just the day before the Parliament announced its ban on Amazon lobbyists, Brussels was overtaken by farmer protests — yet another example of the deep resentment working people feel when they’re singled out.
Indeed, it is right that funding under the Common Agriculture Policy now comes with social conditions that are desperately needed to raise the pay and conditions of its workforce. But it cannot be right that family farms are being asked to do more in order to receive public money, while multinationals like Amazon continue to be awarded contracts without competition, or based solely on the fact they’re offering the lowest price.
This kind of blatant unfairness is what lies beneath growing social unrest. There’s now a perception in rural communities that there’s one rule for them and one rule for everyone else — and they’re not wrong.
It’s time to raise standards across every sector of the economy. And for farming in particular, this should start with raising standards in the EU’s international trade deals, which are currently undercutting its own industry through carbon-intensive imports.
Another key demand from farmers is to reign in the power of multinationals within their sector, as these companies are driving down farmgate prices to the detriment of wages and working conditions. The majority of farmers are finding it harder and harder to make a living despite the big-agri industry recording a huge rise in profits.
This is an experience that’s very familiar to Amazon workers too.
Big business in any sector will, of course, always put profits first. But we should also expect our governments to put the public first. And that means there must be strict public-interest tests for any company receiving taxpayer money.
It’s also unacceptable that the EU has just written a blank check to bosses for €250 billion through its Net Zero Industry Act, which is part of the Green Deal.
In this regard, the EU should follow the example of the Inflation Reduction Act passed by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, and make such funding dependent on companies paying decent wages and using profits to create new jobs instead of bigger bonuses and dividends.
That would be the kind of win-win for workers and the environment that would build support for the green transition — not just make it a scapegoat as we’re currently seeing.
In the EU, workers have the right to join a trade union and collectively bargain for better wages and working conditions. So, why should we hand out millions of euros in public funds to a company that violates those rights?
The Parliament’s ban on Amazon lobbyists is a good start. But, frankly, the least the public should be able to expect is for the world’s biggest companies to not receive public money without being held to the same standards as a family-run farm.