On Friday 19 April, in the presence of Employment Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, representatives of the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) and the world road transport organisation IRU signed a declaration on improving working conditions for road transport workers from third countries.
“The two organisations are committed to working together to improve the working conditions of third-country drivers, while fully respecting their rights”, says a press release.
In it, the two organisations undertake to make the driver profession more attractive and to improve the working conditions of third-country drivers in order to remedy driver shortages in particular, but also exploitations of third-country drivers, as was recently the case in Germany with an unpaid job.
“The attractiveness of the sector can only be improved if all participants in mobility networks and supply chains comply with the law”.
Third-country drivers employed by EU companies “must enjoy exactly the same rights as EU drivers, including in terms of social protection and pay”.
The ETF and IRU also invite the Commission to develop, together with the European Labour Authority, a common methodology and digital tool to facilitate the calculation of remuneration for drivers posted to other EU Member States and to present proposals to apply European rules to third country nationals employed by EU companies or companies established in third countries operating in the EU.
Link to the joint statement: https://aeur.eu/f/bvi (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)