Private equity hostile to labour, should be regulated: ITUC

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PARIS, June 23 (AFP): An international trade union body yesterday urged governments to clamp down on the activities of private equity funds, describing them as "shameless" and hostile to workers.
"Private equity is basically a business model that is antagonistic to labour," the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which represents 168 million workers in 153 countries, charged in a report.
"The management culture of private equity and hedge funds is shameless in its effort to cut all possible costs," the report said, citing instances where companies taken over by private equity funds have eliminated thousands of jobs.
But it added that management by private equity also "includes pressure on wages, benefits and working conditions, refusal to engage in collective bargaining and outright harassment of workers who organise in trade unions."
Under such circumstances, the ITUC insisted, "political action can and must regulate this industry, halt its excesses and ensure that it only operates where it benefits average investors, workers and their societies."