The labour ministers of the EU will meet in Luxemburg on 23 October for a landmark meeting on the European framework for posted workers. Sofia Fernandes, senior research fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute, analyse the issue of posted work in Europe and the challenges of this mobility.
In 2015, there were around 2 million work postings in the European Union, which accounts for 0.9% of total employment in the EU28. Despite the limited scope of this phenomenon, the posting of workers is one of the focal points in political debate on Europe in France. It is associated with unfair social competition between countries, which is harmful to Europe’s image. In addition, the divisions between EU Member States on this issue give the impression that Europe’s unity is waning.
Defining rules designed to protect more effectively workers’ rights, combating more successfully the fraud and abuse related to posting – in particular through the creation of a European Labour Authority – and promoting genuine social and wage convergence within the EU are the winning formula for a more equitable mobility of posted workers within the EU.