Brussels, 13/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the beginning of December, the European Commission will propose tighter rules on seconded workers, particularly when it comes to the minimum wage as the result of collective bargaining, and extending from three to six months the portability of unemployment benefit for people moving abroad in search of work in another member state.
These are two examples of the concrete measures that Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen wants to introduce in a package of draft legislation on job mobility to be unveiled ahead of a meeting of EU employment ministers in Brussels on 7 December. Thyssen discussed her plans at a conference at Maynooth University in Dublin on Friday 13 December.
The Commission is trying to deal with two different issues. There is the question of social dumping on the one hand, which raises its head for many countries, including France, Sweden and the Netherlands, for 'seconded workers.' The second challenge, which the British prime minister, David Cameron, has made his hobby-horse for reform of the EU (see EUROPE 11428), is the few Europeans who move to another member state to take advantage of the more generous social security system there.
Both situations are already covered by EU law, such as the directive on the secondment of workers 96/71/EC (and the recent implementing directive 2014/67/EU) and Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems, and a number of European Court of Justice rulings on “social tourism” (see EUROPE 11389). On seconded workers, Thyssen said that the aim is to unveil tangible, targeted proposals to review the basic directive to make equal pay for equal work a reality, particularly in the construction sector.
She commented: “The problem, however, is that the Directive caters less well for wage-setting systems in which decentralised collective bargaining plays a strong role.” This is particularly the case in Denmark, Italy, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Cyprus. The directives on fixed-term contracts (99/70/EC), part-time work (97/81/EC) and temporary work (2008/104/EC) will serve as references here. Thyssen also talks about an enhancement of investigative tools, particularly the A1 form setting out the legislation applying to a worker who is not a member of a social security scheme in the country where he is working.
As for the coordination of social security systems, the future legislation will try to clarify the difference in the legal framework for workers and the unemployed moving to a different member state. The Commission will take inspiration from recent European Court of Justice rulings, such as the one on the need to be legally resident in a country before being able to claim social security (see EUROPE 11404). Thyssen announced that she wants to propose that unemployment benefit would continue for six months (rather than the current three months) for people leaving their member state of origin to seek work in another member state. Finally, the Commission is planning to remedy a gap in the legislation by proposing that long-term sickness pay should be included in the coordination of social security systems. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)