EXTERNAL EXPERTISE: digital communication expert

TENDER SPECIFICATIONS FOR SUBCONTRACTING

EXTERNAL EXPERTISE: digital communication expert

“Tackling undeclared work in the construction industry - TUWIC”

VS/2018/0370

Tender Specifications

1. Background of the project

According the EU Communication Stepping up the fight against undeclared work (24.10.2007 COM(2007) 628 final), Undeclared work is defined as " any paid activities that are lawful as regards their nature but not declared to public authorities, taking into account differences in the regulatory system of Member States ". This definition links undeclared work with tax and/or social security fraud and covers diverse activities ranging from informal household services to clandestine work by illegal residents, but excludes criminal activities. Undeclared work is a complex phenomenon influenced by a wide range of economic, social, institutional and cultural factors, but it is generally recognised that undeclared work tends to obstruct growth-oriented economic, budgetary and social policies

19% of all undeclared work in the EU-28 is performed in the construction sector.

The percentage varies strongly per country. Focusing on the construction sector when tackling undeclared work is therefore more important in some MS than in others.

Although some undeclared workers in the construction industry do so out of necessity, i.e. as a last resort in the absence of alternative means of livelihood, others seem to operate on an undeclared work basis out of choice (such as some self-employed craftspeople doing home repairs, maintenance and renovation).

National policy measures range from direct controls that seek to alter the costs of undeclared work and/or benefits of operating on a declared basis, to indirect controls that seek to encourage voluntary compliance of suppliers and purchasers of construction services.

At present most emphasis is put on altering the costs of undeclared work by increasing the perceived or actual probability of detection, such as by using ID cards, supply-chain responsibility, joint inspections and so forth. The social partners have played an active role in developing initiatives to tackle undeclared work both at national and EU level.

Less emphasis is currently put on direct incentive measures that make it beneficial and easier to operate on a declared basis, and indirect policy measures that seek to encourage voluntary compliance using awareness campaigns and addressing the structural conditions that cause undeclared work in the construction sector.

 2. General objective of the project

 The objectives of the projects are three-fold:

1. Devising a European campaign on prevention / awareness of UDW in  the construction industry, including providing appropriate promotion material to all EU national members (in their own language) on the prevention / awareness of UDW in the construction industry. This activity targets all the EU member states.
2. Fostering national initiatives by developing a national toolkits and/or organising national tripartite UDW meetings in Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Romania and Bulgaria.  This basis for this are the existing EU tools and approaches to tackle undeclared work in the construction industry. A selection of the existing EU tools and approaches to tackle undeclared work in the construction industry, compiled by the “platform”, will be put into a national toolkit in line with  the choices and priorities of the national partners and the situation/reality of the specific country. These national toolkits can be used as a benchmarking tool to facilitate national discussions.

In order to stimulate concrete actions the project could also facilitate the organisation of national tripartite UDW meetings in the targeted countries. The main actors will be representatives of the national labour inspectorates, representatives of workers and businesses. However, politicians and experts can also participate. These meetings will generate a national discussion on concrete measures to tackle undeclared labour in the construction industry. The national toolkits will be used as an instrument to facilitate the discussions.

3. In order to ensure that the outcomes and results of the national activities are properly presented, discussed and communicated to the other EU national social partners of the construction industry a two-day European congress will be held in Croatia (the country, which will ensure the European Council Presidency in January –June 2020).    

III. Link with the multiannual work program of the European social partners of the construction industry

The Multiannual Action Programme for the Sectoral European social dialogue of the construction industry (2016-2019) contains a clear commitment to develop a “broad partnership” alliance to support the work of the European platform on Undeclared Work.

“The EFBWW and FIEC apply a policy of zero tolerance against unfair and illegal practices in the construction industry and will address the issue of the appropriate measures for combating "undeclared work", amongst others through an active involvement in the EU Platform that should be set up by the European Commission towards the beginning of 2016.

In addition, where appropriate the necessary initiatives will be taken to this end at

national and European level, in a broad partnership with the various actors concerned,

i.e. labour inspectorates, national authorities or social funds.”

This project application was discussed at the meeting of the sectoral social dialogue committee meeting of the construction industry – working party employment, which took place on 7th May 2018 in Brussels.

The project will be closely linked to the future discussions within the working party “employment” of the ESSD construction industry.

3. Methods of work

The general supervision and evaluation of the project will be carried out by the steering group, co-ordinated by the project manager. The steering group  is composed of representatives from the EFBWW and FIEC.

The working language of the project is English.

4. IMPORTANT NOTICE ! Change of the work due to ongoing COVID-19 crisis

Due to health and safety constraints and difficulties to organise a physical Conference, the two day conference (see point 3 of the general objectives of the project) is replaced by an online video conference meeting, which will take place on 24 September 2020 from 10:30 to 13:00.

In order support the organization of this action, we are looking for an external digital communication expert.

5. Requested minimum task of the digital communication expert

The digital communication expert will be requested to perform at least the following duties:

1. Present a detailed structure and organization of the digital conference on order to have a lively, interactive and visually attractive conference. In connection to this we require a “look and feel” of the event.
2. Provide global consulting during the set-up, implementation and follow-up of the digital conference;
3. Deliver needed graphics and design for the digital conference
4. Deliver five (5) 2-minute films of personal testimonies on undeclared work (to be recorded in Belgium) - this should budgetted as an optional activity
5. Deliver seven (7) 2-minute films during which the national social partners of the construction industry in Spain, Austria, France, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy are interviewed (to be recorded within the respective countries). - The tender should take in account that the number of national interviews could be reduced and that this should be reflected in the tender budget.
6. Provide professional support to EFBWW and FIEC during the preparatory, life implementation and follow-up of the digital conference

All interested candidates are invited to submit a concrete proposal on how the digital conference should be organized. Additional suggestion to the requested minimum tasks are welcome.

6. PRELIMINARY Draft agenda of the digital conference

10:00 Online registrations and login

10:30 Welcome Alex Puissant

10:40 Opening by Key note speakers

• • • • EU Commissioner N. Schmit - TBC
      • EFBWW President - TBC
      • FIEC vice-President - TBC
      • Short Q and A – moderated by Mr Alex Puissant

11:00 Presentation EFBWW-FIEC promotional film

• National actions to tackle UDW in Bulgaria
• National actions to tackle UDW in Austria

11:10 Panel discussion moderated by Alex Puissant

Which actions are needed at EU level to tackle UDW in construction?

• Representative European Labour Authority - TBC
• Mr Colin Williams, expert UDW - TBC
• Representative EFBWW - TBC
• Representative FIEC - TBC
• Member of the European Parliament - TBC
• European Foundation of for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound)

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12:10 Coffee break

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12:25 National actions to tackle UDW in Belgium

National actions to tackle UDW in Romania

12:35 Presentation of the European week of action on UDW

European UDW Platform representative

12:50 Joint conclusions and good-bye

• EFBWW President
• FIEC vice-President

13:00 End of the video conference

7. Contract

The Contract between EFBWW and the digital communication expert will be based on a standard contract taking into consideration the financial regulations of the European Commission and obliging the consultant to respect the obligations laid down in the contract European Commission-EFBWW.

The successful consultant will submit to the EFBWW a draft contract EFBWW-Digital Communication expert which includes “back to back” obligations from the contract European Commission-EFBWW also in the relationships consultant-subcontractors.

8. Payment

Payment shall be made on the basis of invoices, once the tasks have been performed and the results of the work have been accepted by the steering group.

9. Selection criteria

The consultant will be selected on the basis of the following criteria
(as mentioned in the public procurement directive 2004/18, Articles 45, 47 and 48):

a)      personal situation of the tenderer

b)      economic and financial standing

c)      technical and/or professional ability

Tenders failing to satisfy all the criteria will be excluded from the further procedure.

10. Award criteria

The contract will be awarded to the bidder whose bid represents the economically most advantageous tender taking into account the following criteria:

1.      Expertise on Digital Communication matters (40%)

2.      Project organizational capabilities (20%)

3.      previous working experiences with (European) social partners (25%)

4.      language and communication skills (15%)

11. Content of the tenders

Interested parties are invited to present their:

a)      comments and solutions on the digital conference

b)      a detailed offer

The content of the tender presented by the consultant must correspond to the specifications indicated in the previous points

12. Evaluation procedure

The economically most advantageous tender will be identified by the evaluation of each award criterion on a scale between 0 and 10. These results will be counted using the relative ponderation indicated in % behind the award criteria.

13. Submission of tenders

The tender must be sent or delivered in duplicate, under a sealed cover. The envelope should be marked “appel d’offres – à ne pas ouvrir par le service du courrier”. If self-adhesive envelopes are used, they must be sealed with adhesive tape and the sender must sign across the tape.

Interested parties should send their bid :

a) either by registered mail posted no later than 14 July 2020 (date as postmark), to the following address :

EFBWW

Tom Deleu/Werner Buelen

Rue Royale 45, boîte 1

1000 Bruxelles

Belgium

b) or delivered by hand, i.e. by delivery in person or by an authorised representative (including private courier services) not later than 2 p.m. on 14 July 2020 to the same address.

Late delivery will lead to the exclusion of the tender from the award procedure for this contract.

For tenders submitted by private courier services and hand delivered requests, the EFBWW secretariat will sign a receipt stamped on the date of reception, which will serve as proof of delivery.

For information only the tenders can be sent by email to info@efbww.eu.