Enforcement of EU rules on posted workers

Although the posting of workers is one of the practices rooted in the very notion of the internal market, it is a relatively rare practice, accounting for less than 2% of the entire EU workforce. Posted workers are employees who are sent to another Member State by the company employing them.

The thorniest political issues related to the posting of workers concern wage dumping and downward competition with respect to workers' rights.

The aim of the new Directive is to grant equal rights to all posted workers, rather than harmonising their rights with those applicable to persons in the Member State to which they were sent. People who work abroad in their own right are not covered by the Directive.

The Greens believe that promoting the practice of posting workers is deceptive unless backed up by solid workers' rights.

We are therefore demanding sanctions for any employers who do not comply with the rules.

In the event of non-compliance they should be obliged to grant their posted workers the rights applicable in the respective host Member State.

Member States must publish their control measures so that abuses related to the posting of workers become traceable. Those Member States that flout the rules should be sanctioned, for example by being named and shamed.

At the same time, workers should be guaranteed ready access to easily understandable information.

During the negotiations held in committee, the Greens succeeded in boosting the accessibility of information provided to posted workers.

We also managed to increase the documentation and disclosure requirements of Member States and their competent authorities, including a naming-and-shaming mechanism.

Thanks to the compromise reached, retrospective amendments of social security payments and salaries will be possible whenever any instances of fraud come to light.

The Greens failed to gain support for open lists of national control measures and a single open list of criteria for defining posted workers.

The EPP and ALDE in particular blocked our attempts in these areas so as to facilitate continued dumping practices by companies.