Posting of workers. A parliamentary note points out the dysfunctions

(B2) The debate on the Bolkestein directive has shown this. For the freedom to provide services to develop, it is necessary to better organize the protection of employees, and in particular those who travel for a company in another European country. This is called the posting of workers.

A question that arouses a detached pout at the European Commission, which prefers to evade the problem. The reason: for the Commission, the protection of social rights is a thing of the past; it's time for flexibility... But this lackluster reaction is heating up the spirits of the deputies. We were thus able to get our hands on an enlightening preliminary report written by the European Parliament.

The fact is unusual enough to be noticed. It is the European Parliament which has decided to verify by itself the application of the directive on the posting of workers and not the European Commission, of which this is however the traditional mission.

To read the first pages of this report which will soon be published by the European Parliament, all is not perfect in the paradise of the posted worker. The very notion of employee, of minimum wage to be respected, remains vague and varies from one State to another. This opens the door to bogus independents.

Second problem: outsourcing. The 1996 text does not include a "responsibility clause" for the sponsor, which authorizes all abuses and cascading subcontracting. Control " continues to be problematic ».

Finally, and above all, the information remains incomplete, analyze the services of the Parliament. To find out which rule to follow, even the company in good faith that posts a worker must make their way through the administrative maquis. Instead of playing an ostrich, the European Commission has, therefore, ... a lot to do.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

Column for France-Culture, February 2006 (completed)