TRADE UNIONS WANT AMBITIOUS REVISION OF POSTED WORKERS DIRECTIVE BY THE END OF THE YEAR

Brussels, 31/08/2017

Tomorrow Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, will meet French Labour Minister, Muriel Pénicaud, to discuss the revision of the Posting of Workers Directive.

It follows an earlier meeting between Luca Visentini and President Macron on July 21 https://www.etuc.org/press/trade-unions-meet-french-president-paris and meetings with Ministers from other countries on posting including the Estonian and Maltese Presidencies.

The ETUC has long called for a strengthening of the Directive which has been undermined by a series of damaging European Court cases, open the door for increased wage dumping across the EU.
The ETUC welcomes the French Government's efforts to ensure a more ambitious revision is approved by EU Governments. At the same time, the ETUC expects a positive compromise to be reached by the end of the year, and the revision of the Directive finalised before the current legislative term comes to an end.

The ETUC encourages the French government to put achievable proposals on the table, that can lead to a satisfactory agreement for European workers soon.

Visentini will tell the Minister that

- The most important thing is to ensure same salary for the same work in the same place and full entitlement of posted workers to all pay and conditions in collective agreements between employers and trade unions;
- It is not worth insisting on a 12 month time-limit for posting if it prevents agreement on the revision: most postings are for less than 6 months, and the number of workers benefitting from a 12 month instead of 24 posting limit would be very small;
- It is vital that the revision is adopted on the dual legal basis of single market and social policy law: forcing judges in any future European Court cases to consider workers' rights as well as market regulations when judging cases involving the posting of workers.

"All trade unions in Europe strongly support the revision of the Posting of Workers Directive" said Luca Visentini "including in countries where the Government is opposing it. I find it shocking that some Governments want their country to export their own citizens as cheap labour. This short-changing their own citizens has to be stopped. Lower-wage economies should support pay rises and closing the pay gap instead of embracing the exploitation of their own people."

"The revision of the Posted Workers Directive is important and will make a difference in the fight against social dumping, but it won't eradicate the problem. Action would still be needed to stop letter box companies being set up to exploit workers, and to strengthen labour inspectorates so that they can properly enforce labour law and deal with issues such as bogus self-employment and the abuse of temporary agency workers."