The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) is concerned about the draft e-declaration on posting workers, which the European Commission will present on 13 November. On Tuesday, 5 November, the organisation wrote a letter to European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, who is responsible for this dossier, expressing its concerns on the matter.
The ETUC writes, “[The] e-Declaration is in danger of going [in] the wrong direction and would not contribute to improved enforcement of the rights of posted workers. While we do acknowledge that digitalisation can help to streamline and simplify the declaration of posted workers, such simplification cannot only serve the interest[s] of business[es].”
It states, “Above all, digitalisation should support better compliance and more effective enforcement, in particular in cross-border situations. We therefore regret that the perspective of workers, trade unions and enforcement bodies has not been given the attention it deserves. [...] Since the outset, process leading up to the e-Declaration standard form has been largely focused on cost and burden reduction for business[es], without consideration to the needs of enforcers and the impact this initiative may have on them and on the workforce.”
The ETUC adds that the aim of requirements and control measures such as the posting declaration is “‘to ensure effective monitoring of compliance with the obligations’ with a view to collect ‘information necessary in order to allow factual controls at the workplace’”. A purely economic approach will not be able to address the issue.
More information: https://aeur.eu/f/e74 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)