ZPP Newsletter
12.04.2018
Ambassadors of EU Member States have accepted the compromise text of the revision of the Posting of Workers Directive 96/71 / EC (PWD) negotiated with the European Parliament.
The revised text of the PWD directive was agreed upon and accepted by the Committee of Permanent Representatives on April 11th. Afterwards, the draft will be sent to the European Parliament for the final adoption – voting in the Employment Committee is possible still in April, the adoption is presumed to take place on June 21st.
Works on the revision of the directive lasted over two years from the moment of presentation of a draft by the European Commission (EC) regarding the shape of the directive amendment in March 2016 – 10 years from the adoption of the directive. The revision of the directive is one of the elements of the implementation of the European Commission’s demands to strive to equalise the remuneration of employees performing the same work in the Community – “Equal pay for equal work” repeated numerous times by the President of the European Commission Jean Claude Juncker in his “ State of the Union” addresses, as well as by Commissioners Marianne Thyssen and Violeta Bulc.
The Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers (ZPP) joined the European discussion on the posting of workers in September 2017 presenting its position and potential consequences of the introduction of proposed provisions for the functioning of small and medium-sized enterprises along with organisations from 16 countries. During more than 60 meetings with the European Commission, Members of the European Parliament as well as other European sectoral organisations, employers as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, the UEE promoted the postulates of Polish entrepreneurs pointing to the impact of provisions on the functioning of, among others, the European common market.
“We had the pleasure to work in Brussels with think tanks – Bruegel, Globsec and ECIPE – communicating the economic potential consequences of those regulations, as well as with expert organisations such as the Labour Mobility Initiative. We participated in meetings, prepared materials, including brochures explaining the consequences of the regulations’ implementation. We promoted them during meetings and events in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg,” says Agata Boutanos, Director of the Representation Office of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers in Brussels, and added, “The event on October 21st organised jointly in the European Parliament by Professor Zdzisław Krasnodębski and the Union on Delegating Workers and the Mobility Package was also the beginning of our cooperation with transport organisations on regarding the posting of workers in the sector – a debate that is still ongoing.”
The revision of the 1996 directive introduces the concept of long-term delegation, which means that after 12 or 18 (in case of consent for a 6-month-long-extension) months, the employee will be delegated in the long term and will be subject to virtually all labour law regulations in force in the host country.
Temporary work agencies are to guarantee the same terms of employment for a posted worker as for temporary employees working in the same country. For international transport, the regulations will be determined separately in the Mobility Package currently being discussed at the level of the European Parliament and the Council. The time for transposition of the Directive on the posting of workers into national law is 2 years from the entry into force of the Directive.
“The process of work on the amendment of the posting of workers directive has proven that Polish lobbying in the EU is still weak. We lack active institutional participants in Brussels. Conclusions should be drawn from this state of affairs in order to make lobbying and communication activities of the Polish side adequate to the size of Poland in the EU. A very important regulation from the point of view of Polish entrepreneurs is the second, currently ongoing, part of the discussion on the posting of workers in international transport. We are constantly striving to make the final decision in this matter as painless as possible for Polish transport companies,” comments Cezary Kaźmierczak, President of the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers.
The change of regulations consisting in shortening of the current posting period from 24 months to 12 (or 18) is unfavourable from the point of view of Polish entrepreneurs. One must hope that it will not critically affect the functioning of Polish companies on the markets of other countries of the European Union. One of the consequences will probably be a more frequent employee turnover due to a reduced posting time.
Contents of the press release “Posting of workers: Council confirms the compromise text agreed with the European Parliament”: www.consilium.europa.eu/pl/press/press-releases/2018/04/11/posting-of-workers-council-confirms-the-compromise-text-agreed-with-the-european-parliament
Photo. European Parliament/ Creative Commons licence / flickr.com
