Quality, qualifications, and the market: Procuring interpretation services in the context of the “refugee crisis”

Abstract

Contracting of services has become increasingly important over the last few decades. Against this background, public contracts play an indispensable role in setting standards for services as well as in the regulation of labour. This article explores public tendering strategies for a specific service, interpretation in the context of asylum and international protection. Based on an empirical study of tendering strategies of two public agencies in Greece, it analyses core issues related to working conditions and service quality, namely, the importance given to the price and the use of stipulations relating to working conditions and qualifications. The findings reveal that even under high budgetary constraints, individual agencies may seek to strategically counteract a price-driven competition and point to the importance of the structure of the market as an external constraint.

Public procurement and labour market inequality: Conceptualising a multi-faceted relationship

“…In the absence of specified requirements individual providers may choose to provide an accessible product, construction project or service, pay decent wages, offer good working conditions, and/ or create employment or training opportunities for individuals from marginalised groups. Yet, if such considerations are not included as explicit requirements, the decision to do so lies in the sole discretion of the specific provider and beyond the public bodies’ control (Sarter and Karamanidou, 2019). So far, this article has argued that the linkage between public procurement and labour market inequality is multi-faceted, generated through three dimensions: object, process, and provider.…”

“…Reductions of staff and the deterioration of wages and working conditions may furthermore have important repercussions for service users and may affect their ability to access (or remain in) employment. Particularly in soft, person-centred services, the person delivering the service, their qualifications, skills and how they treat the user have crucial implications for the service itself (Sarter and Karamanidou 2019). As has been rather widely highlighted, increasing workloads and worsening working conditions can affect the quality of services delivered (Apostolou, 2012; Benjamin, 2016; Epstein, 2013; Hermann and Flecker, 2012).…”

To comply or to be committed? Public procurement and labour rights in global supply chains

“…On OECD average, it accounts for approximately 30% of total government spending and about 12% of GDP (OECD, 2017: 172). Based on the state’s ‘multiple role as employer, regulator and consumer’ (Donaghey et al, 2014: 247), research has paid growing attention to public authorities’ use of public contracts as a tool for regulating labour (Caranta and Trybus, 2010; Corvaglia, 2017; Donaghey et al, 2014; Holley, 2014; Howe and Landau, 2009; Ravenswood and Kaine, 2015; Sarter and Karamanidou, 2019; Scherrer, 2017; Sjåfjell and Wiesbrock, 2016). Initially focussed on the regulation of domestic labour, the promotion of labour standards in GSCs ‘attracted remarkably little attention’ (Donaghey et al, 2014: 247); this has started to change in the last decade.…”