The European Parliament must strengthen the enforcement of the Posted Workers Directive, or reject the compromise text reached in trialogue, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) told MEPs.
The European Parliament debates tomorrow (April 15), and votes the day after (April 16) on, the Posted Workers Enforcement Directive – the enforcement of rules on the rights of EU workers employed for a limited period in another member state.
The ETUC believes that the text must be strengthened.
The measures set out in the Directive for enforcing those rights, to be carried out at the discretion of member states, are weak – and the sanctions that can be applied are not defined.
Worse still, a member state that enthusiastically monitors the application of the rules could be forced to weaken its enforcement if the European Commission decides it is disproportionate.
The same is true of the article of the Directive that deals with sub-contracting, which is used by some unscrupulous companies to avoid responsibility for workers’ pay and conditions. While the Directive rightly permits member states to make all parties of the sub-contracting chain potentially liable for problems such as unpaid wages, it undermines that provision by allowing strong enforcers to be made to weaken their enforcement by the Commission or European Court of Justice.
“The Enforcement Directive must be strengthened” said Veronica Nilsson, Confederal Secretary of the ETUC. “Otherwise it will result in non-enforcement, and the supposed rights of posted workers will not be rights in reality.”
ETUC General Secretary Bernadette Ségol wrote to MEPs “If the compromise reached in the trilogue remains unamended it would be unacceptable to the ETUC. We are strongly encouraging you to vote in favour of the necessary amendments to improve the text.”
Note: you will find here an ETUC press release on the Intra-Corporate Transfer Directive also being voted on in the European Parliament this week
