The CoR Commission for Social Policy and Employment, Education, Research and Culture (SEDEC) adopted today by majority the draft opinion of SEDEC Chair Yoomi Renström (PES/Sweden) on the revision of the Posting of Workers Directive. It responds to the long-awaited European Commission's proposal to revise the legislative framework put in place in 1996 as it no longer responds to the new realities of labour mobility in the Single Market. The revised directive aims at ensuring fair wage conditions and a level playing field between posting and local companies in the host country.
"In 2014, there were some 1.9 million posted workers in the EU and their number has increased by 44.4% since 2010, with posting being used as a means to exploit the growing wage differences amongst Member States and leading to social dumping", stressed the rapporteur in her introductory speech. "Labour mobility is a cornerstone of European integration, but we urgently need a reasonable balance between the free movement of services and protection for posted workers", she said.
The draft opinion endorses the principle that the same work at the same place should be remunerated in the same manner. The rapporteur shares the Commission's view that there should be a time limit beyond which the law of the host country must apply in full to a posted worker. However, she considers that this time limit should be 12 months rather than the 24 months proposed by the European Commission. Contrary to the Commission proposal, the rapporteur argues that the time limit should apply to a single posted worker given the implementation difficulties of adding together periods when several posted workers replace each other to carry out the same tasks in the same place.
SEDEC members also endorsed two key PES requests: a European support fund for the safe return to their countries of origin of posted workers abandoned as a result of the dilution of the responsibility of the employer within the framework of cascade subcontracting and the creation of a European directory of occupations and vocational skills to avoid that posted workers' skills are deliberately underestimated.
Overall, the rapporteur takes note of the fact that the Enforcement Directive, which had to be transposed by the Member States into national law by 18 June 2016, – addresses different issues related to posting (namely fraud, circumvention of rules and exchange of information between the Member States) than those covered by the revised Posting of Workers Directive and that both directives are complementary legal instruments pursuing different objectives. Moreover, given that there are still problems in the implementation of checks on posted workers in the various Member States, she agrees that the objective of the proposed revised Directive, that is, a common definition of the rules applicable to the posting of workers, can be better achieved at EU level. The draft opinion will be presented for adoption to the CoR plenary of 7-8 December.
