New European Labour Regulations
Recently, the 28 EU labour ministers agreed to amend a 1996 Directive, under which a European company may temporarily transfer personnel to another EU country
Roxana Vasile, 10.12.2013, 13:33
On Monday in Brussels the EU labour ministers finalised an agreement better regulating the personnel secondment issue. Several European states had claimed certain companies, particularly East European ones, resort to secondment and thus undermine many local companies, in what has been called a form of “social dumping.”
The issue is making the headlines in the EU, just months ahead of the elections to the European Parliament. Secondment is the temporary posting of workers to another country, and such workers must not be mistaken for immigrants that seek employment in another country. In principle, the employer who posts workers is bound to comply with the labour requirements in the respective country, in terms of minimum wages, working hours, leaves, gender equality and so on. Social contributions, on the other hand, are paid in the workers’ country of origin.
The media has reported on countless cases of gross abuse by employers in search for easy gains, who use the so-called “low-cost” employees as modern-day slaves, disregarding their basic rights. On the other hand, those workers are seen as unfair competition for the local labour force, which is significantly more expensive in West European countries than in Eastern Europe. The new agreement reached on Monday lays down methods to curb secondment abuse cases, which affect an estimated 1.5 million EU citizens.
The main host countries are Germany, France and Belgium. Workers posted to another country must not be mistaken for immigrants seeking a job in another EU member state. The EU labour ministers reiterated that the freedom of movement of workers is not questioned, as this is a fundamental right.
According to Romanian Labour Minister Mariana Campeanu, this is encouraging, given that information in the British or Dutch mass media may suggest new restrictions could be introduced in those countries. On the other hand, the EU member countries undertook to implement a set of EC recommendations to facilitate a faster economic and social integration of Rroma communities. This is the first document adopted by the European Union with respect to the integration of that minority.
