Social dumping is a practice whereby employers use cheaper labour than is usually available at their site of production or sale, for example by moving production to a low-wage country or area, or employing poorly-paid migrant workers.
Employers thus save money and potentially increase their profits.
Systemic criticism suggests that as a result, governments are tempted to enter a so-called social policy regime competition by reducing their labour and social standards to ease labour costs on enterprises and to retain business activity within their jurisdiction.
The document argues that a vague definition of seasonal work might fail to cover all types of seasonal employment taking place when the Directive exerts its otherwise-welcome protective measures on the labour market.
[1][2] Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, has noted that "there is no definition of the concept of "social dumping" in EC law".