Employers’ Organisations Raise Concerns about Implementation of EU Directive on Posting of Workers

On 22nd October, the European Labour Authority (ELA) will hold the fourth meeting of the Posting 360, the Forum on the Posting of Workers. The meeting will mainly focus on the Commission Report on the application and implementation of the Directive 2018/957 concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.

Ahead of the meeting, BusinessEurope, FIEC, CEEMET, ECGE and the World Employment Confederation-Europe issued a joint statement, sharing their views on the report and the proposed further action. While the European employers’ organisations agree with the report’s conclusion that there is no need to propose amendments to the EU Directives on the posting of workers, they are nevertheless concerned to observe that companies are still facing many problems and bureaucratic burdens when posting employees to other Member States.

In the light of the new European Commission’s priorities on implementation and simplification, the organisations stress that the priority should be put on enforcing the rules stemming from the Directive rather than on introducing new ones. The latter would create more administrative burden, sometimes even uncertainty and confusion for all actors involved in the posting of workers.

On top of specific recommendations, the joint signatories also recall that they represent millions of companies which are complying with the applicable legislation and that those should not be held responsible for the misbehaviour of few employers. They stress that social partners and companies are innovating and taking several initiatives to improve enforcement of the legislation at both national and European level. The agency work sector, through its national federations and the World Employment Confederation-Europe, is actively engaged in social dialogue, leading to concrete advances for workers’ rights in the past decades.

The employers’ organisations stand ready to continue collaborating with the European Labour Authority (ELA) to ensure the full transposition and improve the implementation of the Directive.