Social standards in transport should follow the EU principles

For the Czech hauliers, there is 540 EUR of additional costs per driver per month due to the German Minimum Wage Act.

A debate on social standards in transport and the German Minimum Wage Act has been organized by the CEBRE – Czech Business Representation to the EU and the Czech Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels on 2^nd June 2015.

The Minimum Wage Act has raised a lot of discussions on various levels and the Czech Republic was one of the countries that were hit by the legislation the most. The European Commission supports national legislation that sets the minimum wage, but application of a German minimum wage to all transport operations without making any distinction is raising serious legal concerns. 

On the 19th of May 2015, the European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Germany concerning the introduction of the Minimum Wage Act to the transport sector. Previously, the last step of the German government was heavily criticized by governments of the EU member states.

„It would be disproportionate to apply such rule on nationals of other Member States where the transport operation presents a negligible link with the German territory,“said Eddy Liegeois from  DG MOVE of the European Commission. „Principles of freedom to provide services and free movement of goods shall be respected.“

According to Liegeois, the application of the law can be justified in certain cases, e.g. when it concerns cabotage, but it can’t be applied to transit. As far as the priorities of the new Commission are concerned, Liegeois indicated that the aim of the Commission is to focus on social policy in transport; therefore it is envisaged to present a legislative package that will consist of three pillars, which are road charging, social dimension of transport and internal market in the second half of 2016. The public consultation with stakeholders could be launched in July 2015. Besides that, the Commission wants to intensive social dialogue in this area.

„In the case of German minimum wage, the legislation is too extensive and the costs of compliance are too high,“ added Luděk Niedermayer, Czech Member of the European Parliament. Therefore, he hopes that after the intervention of the Commission, there will be no similar measures in EU member states that cause uncertainty in the internal market.

„We calculated that for Czech haulier, there is 540 EUR of additional costs per driver per month, and we must not forget the administrative burden related to it,“ added Jan Němec of the International Road Transport Union.