What changed

MOTION FOR A EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT RESOLUTION

P10_TA(2026)0050

on addressingAddressing subcontracting chains and the role of intermediaries in order to protect workers’ rights

(2025/2133(INI))

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

PE775.631

European Parliament resolution of 12 February 2026 on addressing subcontracting chains and the role of intermediaries in order to protect workers’ rights (2025/2133(INI))

The European Parliament,

M. whereas long and complex subcontracting chains, however, can distort fair competition, obscure accountability, undermine workers’ rights and increase risks related to fraud, labour exploitation, criminal infiltration and the occupational health and safety of workers, especially in high-risk sectors and cross-border situations; whereas, in certain cases, a lack of transparency and oversight in extended subcontracting arrangements can make it more difficult for contracting authorities to ensure compliance with applicable EU and national law;

✦ Drops two recitals that linked exploitative labour models to environmental hazards and described outsourcing as a business model leading to a race to the bottom.

N. whereas exploitative labour models often overlap with environmentally hazardous practices;

O. whereas the practice of outsourcing core activities can lead to a separation of powers and profiting from the diffusion of risks and responsibilities; whereas this practice is used by some undertakings as a business model, leading among other things to a race to the bottom for wages, a deterioration of working conditions and unfair competition;

N. whereas rules restricting subcontracting could impact companies’ value chains, particularly in sectors exposed to global competition; whereas such measures must be balanced with the need to protect SMEs operating in sectors where the risk of abusive subcontracting is low and there is, contrary to high-risk sectors, no need for any limitation of subcontracting chains; whereas joint and several liability in subcontracting chains meets the dual objective of providing recourse to workers who have been exploited and of incentivising contractors throughout the chain to voluntarily limit the length and complexity of subcontracting;

2. Recalls the challenges faced by some Member States, due to varying interpretations of single market rules, to regulate subcontracting at national level, for example, through limiting the length of subcontracting chains, joint and several liability and requirements for direct employment; calls on the Commission to clarify the possibilities for Member States to adopt legislation that is proportionate to address the risks and problems stemming from long and complex subcontracting chains; calls on the Commission to intensify efforts to combat labour exploitation;

✦ Replaces a call for a framework directive on subcontracting and intermediaries with a reiteration of a call to strengthen transparency and accountability, dropping the reference to joint liability.

3. Recalls its resolution on social and employment aspects of restructuring processes, which calls on the Commission, in close cooperation with social partners, to consider establishing a framework directive to address the challenges and complexities associated with employers’ obligations in subcontracting chains and labour intermediaries in Europe to ensure decent working conditions and respect for workers’ rights, to include measures regulating the role of labour intermediaries, other than temporary work agencies, and to introduce an EU general legal framework limiting subcontracting and ensuring joint and several liability through the subcontracting chain;

3. Reiterates its call on the Commission, in order to end abusive subcontracting and to protect workers’ rights, to strengthen transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain;

4. Reiterates its call on the Commission, in order to end abusive subcontracting and to protect workers’ rights, to strengthen transparency and accountability throughout the supply chain, and to consider introducing a well-defined regime for the joint and several liability of economic operators and subcontractors and for ensuring transparency regarding the subcontractors involved and the share of the contract that the contractor intends to subcontract;

4. Stresses that any EU-level initiative seeking to tackle labour exploitation and complex subcontracting chains should take into account Member States’ best practices, be developed in close cooperation with social partners, including the European sectoral social dialogue committees (CDSS), and be tailored to specific sectoral realities; recalls that any sector-specific measures and initiatives, including joint and several liability in high-risk sectors, must be in conformity with EU law and not create unnecessary barriers to cross-border business activities; underlines that sector-specific measures and initiatives may also provide for lower regulatory requirements for companies in low-risk sectors;

6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address practices whereby the main contractor subcontracts all work without performing any work itself, also known as ‘financial subcontracting’; underlines that main contractors should perform a defined part of a contract themselves; reiterates, in this context, its call on the Commission to assess the impact of public contracts being performed mainly by the successful tenderer’s direct workers and recommends that public procurement rules encourage companies to have sufficient in-house staff to implement the projects for which they are awarded public contracts;

✦ Removes the call to include proposals favouring direct employment in the quality jobs act, while keeping the encouragement of direct employment in high-risk sectors.

8.7. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address illegal practices in subcontracting chains in order to ensure business competitiveness and fair and safe working conditions; encourages, in this context, direct employment relationships in high-risk sectors, where feasible, justified, proportionate and based on overriding reasons of public interest, such as the protection of workers and their rights; calls on the Commission to include relevant proposals favouring direct employment relationships in its upcoming quality jobs act;

8. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage the inclusion of community benefit provisions in public procurement and EU-funded projects, such as requiring contractors and subcontractors to contribute to local skills development or to social inclusion initiatives, thereby creating positive spill-over effects from public investments;

9. Emphasises that national and regional initiatives that limit the levels of subcontracting have often been initiated jointly by social partners, including SME representatives; stresses that such initiatives should be respected, while limitations to subcontracting must be proportionate;

✦ Drops the call for a framework to limit subcontracting chains, leaving only the note that complexity challenges labour inspectorates.

11.10. Notes that the length and complexity of subcontracting chains pose a significant challenge to labour inspectorates in establishing legal responsibility for labour law violations, which needs to be tackled; calls on the Commission to propose a framework to limit subcontracting chains with a focus on addressing issues in high-risk sectors;

11. Stresses the importance of including gender-sensitive provisions in any new framework;

17. Calls on the Commission to engage with Member States to ensure the efficient implementation and enforcement of current legislation on posting of workers; recalls that the EU has adopted a number of legal instruments to combat labour exploitation and illegal work, the enforcement of which needs to be improved at national level; calls on the Commission to take stock of the situation, to ensure the efficient and effective implementation and enforcement of the relevant legal instruments by Member States and to launch, where necessary, infringement procedures against Member States that do not comply with applicable EU law;

✦ Replaces a call for a minimum EU framework for labour intermediaries with a highlight of public registers, adding conditions on integrity, fees, and sanctions.

19. Stresses the need for a minimum EU framework under which labour intermediaries operate in order to strengthen their accountability, transparency obligations and compliance with minimum requirements and quality standards, as stipulated by ILO Convention No 181 on Private Employment Agencies;18. highlightsHighlights the added value of public, interoperable registers of licensed labour intermediaries; underlines that any licensing or registration should be subject to minimum integrity criteria; calls on the Commission to take stock of national practices and legislation on labour intermediaries and to ensure that labour intermediaries operating in the EU do not charge any fees or pass any costs on to workers, directly or indirectly, in whole or in part; underlines that labour intermediaries who violate the applicable law or collective agreements should receive dissuasive sanctions, such as their removal from public registers and their exclusion from public contracts;

19. Calls for the forthcoming revision of the public procurement directives to ensure that the exclusion criteria better address specific sectoral risks related to fraud, corruption and criminal infiltration; stresses that different sectors require separate, tailored exclusion criteria, reflecting their specific vulnerabilities; stresses that contracting authorities should be empowered to adapt procurement procedures to combat and address criminal activities; highlights that, in order to promote greater efficiency and simplification, the provisions relating to grounds for exclusion should be streamlined; underlines that any economic operator that breaches its obligations under applicable labour and environmental laws pursuant to Article 18(2) of Directive 2014/24/EU should effectively be excluded from the public procurement process in question;

31. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.

EXPLANATORY STATEMENT

Workers in sectors such as construction, agriculture, domestic work, transport and logistics, meat and food processing, cleaning services, hospitality and care work are the backbone of our economy. At the same time, in most European countries, these are sectors that are plagued by persistent levels of abuse, exploitation and fraudulent competition, harming workers as well as legitimate businesses, especially SMEs.

Several tragic workplace incidents in recent years across Member States have exposed the real human costs of losing control over who is ultimately responsible for ensuring compliance with basic health and safety and employment standards, raising fundamental concerns about legal accountability, traceability and control over working conditions.

At the same time, Europol has warned that almost all of Europe’s most threatening criminal networks are using legal business structures to gain a foothold in the European economy, with logistics, cash-intensive businesses and construction being particularly affected.

In today’s security landscape, the lack of oversight can also present opportunities for hostile actors seeking to gain information on, or disrupt, critical infrastructure, or gain access to security sensitive workplaces.

There is not one single factor driving labour exploitation and the risks it represents to European workplaces. However, there are certain variables that keep recurring in national and European studies as well as in reports from enforcement authorities. One of those is the increasing reliance on long and complex subcontracting chains and the other is the presence of abusive labour intermediation. Together these two interconnected practices make it more difficult for authorities to prevent and detect fraudulent or criminal actors from entering a workplace.

For many workers and businesses on the ground, this does not come as a surprise. The rise of workplaces without adequate control and where responsibility is divided up, diluted and pushed downstream has been the source of discontent for many years.

In response to these challenges, Member States have tried to step up, tightening controls and taking action to prevent the most common forms of abuse. They have made efforts to limit long subcontracting chains, strengthen liability requirements, increase information exchange and set up specific control units focusing on detecting and rooting out labour exploitation and abuse. National and sectoral social partners have also stepped up to the challenge and taken autonomous initiatives to help clean up their sectors as well as jointly pushed their governments to do more. It is clear these efforts have had important positive effects, but it is also clear it is not enough and that more needs to be done.

The challenges are particularly felt when dealing with companies operating across borders, as cross-border cooperation between enforcement authorities, information exchange and legal frameworks have not kept pace with the developments on the ground. Without a united European response, it becomes easier for fraudulent and criminal actors to exploit weaknesses of the Single Market. There are also several instances where Member States have faced legal challenges when taking action against labour exploitation and to ensure fair competition, often with reference to Union law.

Labour exploitation in general, and abusive forms of subcontracting and labour intermediation in particular, therefore requires a coordinated response at European level.

A successful response to these challenges must mean making the business-models of fraudsters and criminals unprofitable, thus protecting workers and making life easier for all law-abiding businesses. This response should be based on three pillars:

1. Prevention, making it as hard as possible to engage in fraudulent activities

2. Control, making the risk of discovery as high as possible

3. Sanctions, making sure the consequences are strongly felt by those who get caught

Ultimately, I hope this report will provide an impetus for intensifying the fight against labour exploitation with a focus on abusive forms of subcontracting and labour intermediation, gathering broad support from across the political aisle and from social partners. While opinions may differ on the precise solutions, it is my sincere hope that we can all depart from the shared recognition that these problems on the European labour market are real, intensifying and in need of urgent attention.