Time for fair and equal wages for posted workers, says ETUC chief
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Euronews http://www.euronews.com/2017/09/29/time-for-fair-and-equal-wages-for-posted-workers-says-etuc-chief
· last updated:
29/09/2017
Sophie Claudet spoke to
Luca Visentini, the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC).
Time for fair and equal
wages for posted workers, says ETUC chief
Sophie Claudet spoke to
Luca Visentini, the General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation
(ETUC).
Visentini is pushing
for a revision of the posted worker legal framework.
Sophie Claudet: Luca
Visentini, hello. Your organisation, along with countries such as France and
Germany, to name a few, want the rules on posted workers to change. How do you
propose to make them better?
Luca Visentini: “The
point is to get full equal treatment for workers that are posted. That means
receiving the same pay, for the same type of work, in the same place. This is
the principle that President Juncker launched when he launched the revision of
the directive and this is exactly what we want.”
SC: Can you explain why
there is his rift between Eastern and Western European countries when it comes
to changing the rules. Basically, most Eastern European countries do not want
these rules to change?
LC: “The receiving
countries would like to stop this so-called wage and social dumping. By that I
mean unfair competition on wages when workers are posted to their own country,
not respecting minimum wages, collective agreements … etcetera.
“And on the other side
you have the sending countries that would like to keep some kind of competitive
advantage to make sure that they can continue posting and their companies can
continue posting workers. It’s clear that the only way out from this situation
is that on the one side, you guarantee equal treatment, so you solve the
problem of dumping.
“And on the other side
you need to start a process for wage convergence and convergence of working
conditions to make sure we can overcome the so-called wage divide and social
divide that still exists, particularly between east and west.”
SC: We have seen, in
our reports, that sometimes workers are caught in a web where sub-contractors
do not respect their basic rights, wages, working conditions and so on. Don’t
you think that besides revising the rules on posted workers, there should be
more controls and checks to make sure that sub-contractors do not scam posted
workers. And how can that be done?
LC: “Absolutely, yes,
it’s true that 80 percent of posting happens in sub-contracting and not
directly in the companies that are receiving these workers. There are a couple
of discussions going on at the moment at the European level that could address
the problem properly.
“One is the discussion
about the revision of social security regulations, where some additional
controls could be added. And on the other side there is this idea that was
announced by president Juncker in his speech in front of the European
Parliament, that is the idea of creating a so-called labour authority.
“This labour authority
at the European level could be a really a sort of trans-national or
cross-border inspectorate or at least could realise a co-ordination that could
increase checks and controls. But of course, again, first of all it is the
responsibility of member states to make sure that the controls are there and
ensure that equal wages are paid to posted workers.”
SC: So in closing, are
you confident that the rules will be changed within this current parliament’s
term that end by 2019?
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