EU tightens net employment rules in member states

BRUSSELS: The EU reached a tentative agreement yesterday to tighten employment rules for workers who move to richer member states to earn more money but also risk undercutting wages in their adopted country.

French President Emmanuel Macron has spearheaded the initiative to reform the system, known as “posted workers”, to quell discontent among his voters, arguing that it was undercutting salaries and social standards in wealthier states.

Currently workers from poorer EU countries can be employed in other member states on contracts that only need to guarantee the host country’s minimum wage, while social security charges – much higher in western states like France – are paid back home. “At the heart of our proposal was the principle of equal pay for equal work in the same place, and we now confirm this in legislation,” EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen said.

Thyssen, who has been holding talks with representatives of member states and the European Parliament, declined to give details of the tentative accord before reporting back to EU national governments.

The deal must still win the approval of member state governments and EU institutions to become law.

Poorer EU member states in the former communist east have been reluctant to change a system that has given them a competitive advantage over richer neighbours and allowed their citizens to earn more than they could back home.

“The negotiators managed to overcome the difference between East and West, left and right and employers and employees,” said Agnes Jongerius, a negotiator on behalf of the European Parliament, who also declined to provide details on the accord.

The debate among richer and poorer member states over cost competition has not been limited to workers on assignment abroad. – Reuters/African News Agency (ANA)