Brussels, 11/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The Dutch Presidency of the Council of the EU is very likely to have the tough task of managing the reopening of one of the most politically sensitive dossiers. This will involve the posted workers dossier, which some commentators fear will produce the danger of another fracture in the EU between Eastern and Western European member states.
The package on employment mobility contains a proposal to amend Regulation 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and a proposal for a “targeted revision” of the directive on the posting of workers 96/71/EC (see EUROPE 11430). According to the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs, Marianne Thyssen, speaking at the end of 2015, this is just one sentence away from being concluded. Addressing MEPs on 18 December, she explained that the decision at the time to present this package, “also depends on the political context”. Currently, the Commission and the Dutch Presidency are counting on holding their first employment ministers' meeting of the semester in March 2016.
Instead of presenting this package in December 2015, as initially planned, the Commission therefore decided to wait (see EUROPE 11442). It is aware that the current political context is not the most favourable one for reopening this dossier. The Paris attacks, migration crisis and negotiations with the United Kingdom on EU reforms (which also focus on intra-European migration of workers) has shaped an overall context that is not very propitious for launching legislative negotiations on the issue of mobility in the Union.
The targeted revision of the directive is one objective, namely: carving into stone the principle of “equal pay for equal work”. This principle is at the heart of the work programme set out by President Jean-Claude Juncker and it was included in the Dutch Presidency of the Council's programme. According to the Presidency, this revision should, above all, seek to tackle two questions: one on pay and the other on the period of detachment for a posted worker.
The provisions in directive 96/71/EC with regard to the application of the minimum wage in a state where workers are posted could therefore be amended. The directive does intend to include certain “flexibility” on this point, by way of a derogation when the posting is for less than a month. It should also be pointed out that a ruling of February 2015 from the European Court of Justice tackled the question of equal pay between local and posted workers (see EUROPE 11252). The question of a clear limit on the length of a posting is also expected to be tackled, explained the Dutch Minister for Social Affairs and Employment, Lodewijk Asscher, who came to present the Presidency's priorities to the European Parliament's Social Affairs and Employment Committee on Monday 11 January. A large part of his speech and the debate that followed focused on the revision of this directive and highlighted the interest that this dossier was creating.
Both the Commission and Council are preparing for a fierce battle. One Brussels-based diplomat informed EUROPE that he was afraid that the Commission proposals would be the subject of lengthy and very difficult negotiations at the Council. He thought that this would be an “explosive dossier”, which was in danger of reopening the “worst” divisions within the EU, namely, those between the East and West, given that the current context is not exactly the most favourable. According to this diplomat, we should be prepared for much more difficult negotiations than those held previously because this time, the basic directive is being tackled. He therefore pointed out that they would have needed more than a year and a half of negotiations at the Council to find a political agreement on a “simple” application directive (2014/67/EU) which would ultimately only slightly affect the basic directive (see EUROPE 10980).
The Commission will already be able to count on the Dutch Presidency to attempt to complete a targeted revision of this directive. Asscher said that it was “crucial” to modernise this directive, so that they were better able to protect posted workers. Other member states, however, such as Poland (the position of the new Conservative government has not changed from that of the previous government, which was very firm on this point in the application directive negotiations), do not want to discuss it. According to them, it is too early to take this approach because the effects of the 2014/67 EU directive have not yet been gauged (member states have until 18 June 2016 to transpose this and only France has notified the Commission that it has done so, even though this has only been done partially). They also see such revision as a desire to create further barriers to the mobility of their own workers. (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)