Consequences of the posting of workers directive’s review

The employers are warning, in the long-term, against the intention to review the EU Commission’s directive.

Although there’s no political conformity either in the European Commission colegium nor among the member states, the proposal for the so-called targeted review of the posting of workers directive has appeared both in the Single Market Strategy for goods and services and the EU Commission’s Work Programme for 2016. The specified proposal should have been included in the so-called mobility package, this has been nevertheless unexpectedly withdrawn from the Commission’s schedule last week. The Commission has not indicated any specific reason for doing so, but it is likely that the main reason is just the hot issue of posting of workers.

The Confederation of European Business BUSINESSEUROPE has sent a letter to the EU Commission’s president Jean-Claude Juncker on 26th November 2015 in which it is expressing strong concern in relation to the impact that the directive’s review could have on the single market if the starting point of the review will be the application of the principle „equal pay for equal work in the same place“.

Alarming is the joint letter of the employers‘ and entrepreneurs‘ organizations of five Nordic countries – Iceland, Sweden, Finnland, Norway and Danemark addressed to the Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility Marianne Thyssen as well as to the EU Commission’s vice-president for the Euro and Social Dialogue Valdis Dombrowskis. In the letter, the employers and entrepreneurs warn against the far-reaching consequences of the Commission’s proposal both on the European and national level. They challenge the very question of the comparision (who and with whom) as well as the issue of the foreign service providers‘ discrimination and the absence of the EU Commission’s legislative competence to influence the wage forming mechanism on the national level.

The BUSINESSEUROPE's letter