The EU targets truck drivers – or at least targets how their employment status often crosses borders as they do.
The European Commission’s Transport Directorate (DG MOVE) wants new rules targeting false self-employment and unfavorable working conditions in the trucking industry, according to an internal Commission document seen by POLITICO.
These rules would clamp down on the sector’s use of “mailbox companies”, which are shell subsidiaries set up by Western European companies in Eastern European countries to take advantage of weaker labor laws. Through these arrangements, companies can avoid the West’s more stringent regulations regarding social benefits for their employees, including minimum wages, pensions, working time and social security.
A new road safety agency is supposed to do this by focusing on how transport companies respect national social legislation. The measure is part of a package of transport reforms scheduled to be implemented early next year.
This is a sensitive and politically complex issue in the EU, and trucking companies are already on the defensive. “Most companies in the sector respect the legislation, and of course we are against post office box companies,” said Stuart Colley of the International Road Transport Union, the sector’s largest union.
It is not illegal for companies to hire “consigned” workers – employees who are sent to another country for a short period – as long as they respect minimum wage laws or basic social legislation. In addition, in the case of the land transport sector, the “cabotage” rules allow a company with workers on an international voyage to remain under the legislation of origin of the company for seven days.
“The main issue is the lack of capacity to enforce existing rules,” said Christina Tilling of the European Transport Workers’ Union, a trade union for truck drivers. “Some countries are too lenient with regard to enforcement measures, and most national monitoring services are understaffed and ill-equipped to check whether a company is complying with EU rules.”
Some companies can have, in the same truck cabin, drivers of multiple nationalities, Tilling said. This makes it almost impossible to check whether everyone respects the rules regarding wages or rest time.
European Union countries are deeply divided on this issue.
In March, 14 countries filed a complaint with the German Federal Constitutional Court over Germany’s decision to impose a minimum wage on truck drivers while driving in the country. France and Belgium have also taken some measures against social dumping in the sector by imposing new rules prohibiting drivers from taking a weekly rest period in the car.
Eastern European countries and the transport industry oppose such national measures, which they see as protectionist.
Others say it is not clear that the EU needs another agency.
European Parliament member Karima Deli, a member of the Transport Committee, said, “We are not against the establishment of an agency, but its management, powers and transparency are crucial issues,” considering that the new social law as mentioned by the Commission will be “a matter of great importance.” The first step towards harmonizing social benefits in a sector where competition distortions depend mostly on salaries. “Instead of acting as a firefighter, the EU should now be working to achieve shared social benefits across Europe.”
Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Social Affairs, and Violeta Bulk, European Commissioner for Transport, are expected to unveil plans for this European agency in June at a joint event on social issues in the road transport sector.
Even before the new measures are implemented, the Commission plans in the next few months to launch infringement cases against the most obvious violations.
