EPSU puts McDonalds and tax avoidance in the spotlight

(2 March 2015) We have been witnessing how the "There Is No Alternative" to austerity has played out in Brussels and European capital cities over the last two weeks. The Greek government reached a deal which many have interpreted as caving in by the Syriza government. Others judge that the Greek government has bought itself valuable time. It will continue the negotiations to implement measures that will address the humanitarian crisis of high unemployment, increased poverty and the underfunding of public services. The Greek prime minister remains defiant and committed to force a change of policy despite having to face hostile conservative governments like those of Spain and Portugal where elections will take place later this year. It also revealed how the Eurozone economic policy framework and the political decision-making come with constraints and challenges that show the weaknesses of the democratic underpinning. The European Parliament had no role whatsoever in the whole process. There were no collective checks on the decisions of Eurozone finance ministers. Such discussions in the Eurozone raise questions for us as trade unions and our capacity to act to support our Greek and other colleagues as well. And vice-versa for the cooperation between our colleagues and the European trade union movement. Such issues will play a role in the preparation of the ETUC Congress as debates on the ETUC manifesto continue. The manifesto will address tax justice and ETUC's determination to fight tax avoidance and tax havens and the ETUC Executive is due to adopt a resolution on these issues at its meeting on 10 March. The resolution is in line with many of the points on which EPSU has been campaigning as part of its tax justice campaign. Addressing tax avoidance will also be one of the new Greek government's priorities to ensure more income from taxation. Many corporations and liberal professions are failing to contribute their fair share to society.

How companies avoid paying taxes was revealed by EPSU, our colleagues of the European Federation of Foodworkers (EFFAT), the US union SEIU and the UK anti-poverty campaign group War on Want. We released a study on how the global corporation McDonalds avoids paying its taxes in many European countries. Its tax avoidance scheme, set up in Luxembourg with the support of the then Juncker government, has cost Member States €1bn over a five-year period. There is growing anger that companies and the rich have become parasites that feed on society. The newly established European Parliament Special Committee also started its work to look at tax avoidance, tax rulings and the like. EPSU will stress that the tax avoidance strategies of the Member States and European Commission will be ineffective unless they reverse the cuts in jobs and investment in tax administrations. The constraints faced by the European Commission illustrates this. It has the powers to question companies and governments but we are told it lacks the resources to do this on a systematic scale and so corporations continue to avoid accountability. This is an issue I raised directly with Commissioner Moscovici last week when we shared a panel at a seminar organised by Eurocities.

While the report on McDonalds was receiving considerable media attention, EPSU affiliates were actively participating in a broad range of activities including the Standing Committees, social services working group and the prison services seminar. We sent a solidarity message to affiliates organising firefighters in both Ireland and the UK, who were taking action to defend their health and safety and pensions. Our Turkish colleagues continue their protests against the dismissals by the Maltepe University Hospital in Istanbul which saw the President of Dev-Saglik-Is (DISK) Dr. Arzu Çerkezoğlu arrested. EPSU and PSI protested immediately about the police violence against the union colleagues who were subsequently released and we need to continue the pressure on the management of the hospital.

EPSU also wrote to the Romanian government over a dispute between the air traffic controllers union and management of ROMATSA, the air traffic control company. Its management has been replaced by three ex-generals who do not know the meaning of the words information and consultation nor social dialogue, reorganising the company without involving the workers. A most remarkable case though involved workers in the European Patent Office. Its director Mr Battistelli has been waging a battle against the workers and their union, a branch of EPSU affiliate USF that organises workers in European and international institutions. The workers want a say in the restructuring and work organisation plans. Management threatened the workers with serious repercussions if they took any kind of protest or strike action. The local union of the The Hague branch of EPO took the case to a Dutch court which ruled that despite the immunity of international organisations they can not place themselves outside of the European and international legal order given by the European Court of Human Rights (and the Social Charter of the Council of Europe) and the ILO. Well, management as well as the Dutch minister of justice see that differently and will not respect the Court decision. Dutch MEP and former trade union leader Agnes Jongerius has raised questions in the European Parliament and we wrote to the Board of the EPO. It can not be that an organisation to which the European Union has delegated tasks (the unitary patent) places itself outside of the legal order denying its workers the right to strike. And at the very moment when the right to strike was confirmed in the ILO following the successful global action organised by ITUC and PSI - a good example of what we can do if we act together.


In solidarity,

Jan Willem Goudriaan


EPSU General Secretary