Social dumping is a practice of
employers
Employment is a relationship between two party (law), parties Regulation, regulating the provision of paid Labour (human activity), labour services. Usually based on a employment contract, contract, one party, the employer, which might be a co ...
who use cheaper
labour
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
than is usually available at their site of production or sale, for example where production is moved to a low-wage country or area, or where poorly-paid
migrant worker
A migrant worker is a person who Human migration, migrates within a home country or outside it to pursue work. Migrant workers usually do not have the intention to stay permanently in the country or region in which they work.
Migrant worker ...
s are employed. Employers thus save money and potentially increase their
profits. Systemic criticism suggests that as a result, governments are tempted to enter a so-called ''social policy regime competition'' by reducing their labour and social standards to ease labour costs on enterprises and to retain business activity within their jurisdiction. There is a controversy around whether social dumping takes advantage of an
EU directive
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
on internal markets, the
Bolkestein directive
The Bolkestein directive (officially Services in the Internal Market Directive''2006/123/EC is an European Union law, EU law aiming at establishing a single market for Service (economics), services within the European Union (EU). Drafted under ...
.
Gains and losses
Entities losing from social dumping:
* Employees in exporting countries
* Child labor in exporting countries
* Industry and environment in exporting country
* Government in exporting countries
* Employees in importing countries
* Shareholders of the company in importing countries
Entities gaining from social dumping:
* Companies in importing country
* Shareholders in importing country
* Customers in importing country
* Industry in importing market
* Employment in exporting country
* Government and investment in exporting country
Policy issues
A joint
NGO
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
statement on the EU
Seasonal Migrant Workers' Directive also warns against social dumping. The document argues that a vague definition of seasonal work might fail to cover all types of seasonal employment taking place when the Directive exerts its otherwise-welcome protective measures on the labour market.
Marianne Thyssen
Marianne Leonie Petrus Thyssen (; born 24 July 1956) is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V) who served as European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility between 2014 and 2019 ...
,
, has noted that "there is no definition of the concept of "social dumping" in EC law".
Crown Commercial Service
The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is an executive agency and trading fund of the Cabinet Office (United Kingdom), Cabinet Office of the UK Government. The CCS is responsible for managing the government procurement, procurement of common goods a ...
(UK)
THE PUBLIC CONTRACTS REGULATIONS 2015: GUIDANCE ON SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS
footnote 6 on page 11, referring to a written answer given by the Commissioner on 14 August 2015, published 12 September 2016, accessed 28 December 2022
See also
*
Dumping (pricing policy)
Dumping, in economics, is a kind of injuring pricing, especially in the context of international trade. It occurs when manufacturers export a product to another country at a price below the normal price with an injuring effect. The objective of d ...
*
SUTA dumping SUTA dumping is a name commonly used to describe a practice used by some companies doing business in the United States to circumvent paying unemployment insurance taxes, as mandated by the Unemployment Tax Act of 1939. The acronym SUTA is for "State ...
References
External links
European Union's Eurofound website: Social dumpingCabinet veterans challenge ministers to address 'social dumping'
- The Guardian newspaper (UK) Tuesday 3 February 2009
Social-dumping: a crisis in the UK Engineering Construction industry
- Amicus website
Social Dumping Hypothesis Issues and Challenges
GMTDC Business Training & Consultation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Social Dumping
Anti-competitive practices
Offshoring
International trade
Pricing
Migrant workers