The revision of the European directive on posted workers is entering a potentially decisive phase.
Three successive votes by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union must take place to significantly clarify the content of the future text.
Discussed for eighteen months, this subject continues to strongly divide European countries. Led by France, Western states are in favor of a profound revision, while Central and Eastern European countries (and Denmark) advocate for minimal reform.
In the European Parliament, on October 16, the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs approved the principle of aligning wages between posted and local workers.
The directive on posted workers, which dates back to 1996, should therefore be reformed in this direction.
It remains to be confirmed during the meeting of the Labor Ministers of the Member States this Monday and the vote of the Parliamentary Assembly on October 26.
Currently, it should be noted that since companies posting workers are only required to comply with the minimum wage rates in force in the host Member State, there are often enormous gaps between the wages of posted workers and local workers, especially in Member States where wages are relatively high. In some sectors and in some Member States, posted workers might receive up to 50% less salary than local workers.
The existence of significant wage disparities distorts competition between companies, harming the proper functioning of the single market.
However, the maximum duration of posted work assignments remains set at twenty-four months, whereas Paris advocated for reducing this duration to twelve months, much to the dismay of Central European countries, led by Poland and Hungary, which are major providers of posted workers in the rest of Europe.
Germany, France, and Belgium are the three Member States that attract the most posted workers, receiving between them about 50% of all workers hosted within the framework of posting.
