The new directive on posted workers should allow for more effective regulation of the use of this particular scheme.
For equivalent tasks, this legislative text ensures equal pay for employees subject to this scheme compared to local workers. It thus helps to combat social dumping, as well as corporate fraud.
In concrete terms, a worker posted to France by a foreign company will be paid in the same way as an employee working for a company in France in a similar task. A principle that was far from being applied until now, as the law simply required ensuring the host country’s minimum wage for posted workers.
Additionally, travel, board, and lodging expenses must be covered by the employer when the posted worker needs to travel to or from their workplace in France.
The enforcement of this text marks the culmination of a long legislative process. An initial directive on this subject, dated 1996, had indeed been amended by European institutions. In March 2018, after two years of intense negotiations, the 28 member states, the European Parliament, and the Commission agreed to better regulate this practice.
“It’s an important step” because “the use of posted work in France has more than doubled in the last 10 years” due to some companies misusing “the exceptional and temporary nature of this provision” and receiving “some workers in unacceptable conditions,” recalled French Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne.
As the economic crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic is felt in Europe and the French unemployment rate rises significantly, these measures appear as an additional tool available to the government to promote a return to employment.
