Study: EU competition policies ignore workers

The failure of EU competition enforcers to assess and address the impact of growing corporate power on workers is contributing to lower employment, wages and working conditions, this new expert study for the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) shows.

Corporate power has reached an all-time high, with competition policies doing little to reverse this trend, enabling companies to hit consumers through excessive price rises and allowing dominant firms to exercise downward pressure on wages and working conditions.

Coming on top of previous EU austerity policies which lowered collective bargaining coverage, current competition policies weaken workers’ ability to bargain for a fair share of corporate profits. This increasing asymmetry between corporate and labour power has a direct impact on income distribution, therefore leading to higher levels of inequality in the EU.

Demonstrating the shortcomings of competition policies with a narrow focus on only business efficiency and consumer interests, the ETUC study highlights the need for scrutiny of EU competition policies from a labour market perspective.

For the full press release and to access the study, follow this link