Sued Log - Forwarding and logistics

• 19 March 2018

New rules on posting of employees

Long-distance trucking will not be part of the forthcoming amendment to the EU Posting of Workers Directive. After nine hours of negotiations, which ended today around 01:00, the Bulgarian EU Presidency and representatives of the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed. MEP Martina Dlabajová, who attended the meeting, reminded in the morning that the Czech Republic has long sought to remove transit traffic.

An amendment to the 1996 rules was introduced by the European Commission in early 2016, and since then the matter has been negotiated. The EU executive has sought to ensure fair pay for workers working in another country, including, for example, that they should be remunerated according to the rules of the country in which they operate.

According to Martina Dlabajová, the agreement on the form of the amendment to the directive is provisional. Representatives of the member states will meet again during March. According to the representative of the Bulgarian presidency, the final vote in the European Parliament should take place in the first half of this year.

Due to its carriers, not only the Czech Republic and other countries from the center and east of the Union, but also countries such as Portugal and Spain wanted to remove truck transport and solve this problem by special regulation. Their drivers would also be affected in a difficult way by rules on, for example, the country’s usual salary or other compensation.

Among the changes to the original form of the directive proposed by the Commission is a reduction in the maximum period of posting of a worker, ie the time before employees will have to be subject to the national rules of the country to which they have been posted. The Commission originally proposed 24 months, but last October the member states agreed on 18 months, a shorter period was mainly promoted by France.

The current final compromise also envisages a period of 12 months with a possible extension of another six months, so in practice it corresponds to the 18 months. According to diplomatic information, by night agreement, Member States should have two years after the amendment has been adopted to transpose its rules into national law.

As early as October, the member states of the union also agreed to postpone the application of the rules in international road transport until the special regulation discussed in the so-called road package came into force in this area.