Dutch social affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher has repeated his warning that more needs to be done to stop a ‘race to the bottom’ in terms of ensuring equal pay within the European union.

In a letter in both the Financial Times and the Volkskrant, Asscher states that equal pay for equal work in the same place is meant to be the golden rule of free movement within the EU.

‘Unfortunately, there are a myriad of transnational businesses that flout this rule or use crafty methods to circumvent it,’ Asscher said. This is leading to the ‘underpayment of mobile workers from Eastern Europe and undesirable displacement of workers in western Europe.’

Top priority

Asscher said the new European Commission should make tackling this a top priority through a ‘forceful and united approach’.

The minister put forward several suggestions. Employers should not only pay their staff equally for equal work but extend this to other forms of employment, he said.

Secondly, there must be a stop to the ‘cheap trick’ of creating letterbox companies. These, he said, are ‘enterprises which move abroad on paper and continue their activities in their home country, but paying lower wages’.

Thirdly, contactors should be held responsible for ensuring that workers employed by subcontractors are paid properly.

Nine months ago, Asscher issued a similar warning, saying there was a lack of urgency in Brussels about tackling the problem.

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