Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund

The number of workers posted from one EU Member State to another for the purpose of working there for limited amount of time increases each year. During the Corona pandemic with the closed borders, the number of posted workers is likely to have decreased. However, when the borders reopened, posted workers were again sent to work to other EU countries.

Due to the cross-border nature of the posting and the short duration of stay, posted workers are in a particularly precarious situation. Most of them do not speak the language of the host country properly, they are not integrated into the system, they do not have a reliable network of helping community. If problems occur, they do not know whom to ask for help nor do they know their rights. The workers are at risk of being trapped in precarious labour relations where labour laws are circumvented and standards for safety and health at work are undermined.

To enhance the implementation and the correct application of the Directive 96/71/EC and the Amending Directive (EU) 2018/957, an improved access to information on applicable terms and conditions of employment in a transparent and accessible manner is crucial.

Activities

Therefor, “Fair European Labour Mobility” runs information centres for posted workers in the sending and host countries. The counsellors working at the information centres give advice to posted workers, exchange information on laws and regulations, arrange contacts and help to solve problems.

In the main sending countries, we provide sector-specific expertise:

• Poland (OPZZ | All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions)
• Slovenia (ZSSS | Confederation of Free Trade Unions in Slovenia)
• Hungary (VASAS | Hungarian Metalworkers’ Federation)
• Romania (BNS | National Trade Union Bloc)

Also, we run one Information centre in the receiving country Austria (ÖGB| Austrian Trade Union Federation)

All Information centres cooperate with the counselling centres of Faire Mobilität in Germany (associated partner DGB Faire Mobilität counselling structure)

DGB Bildungswerk (DGB Training Institute) will coordinate the transnational sector-specific network and conduct following accompanying activities:

• Transnational workshops
• Work exchange of counsellors, to guarantee high qualified counselling
• Evaluation workshop
• live-information events on specific branches for posted workers in social media
• Information sessions for workers in Hungary and Austria on posted work
• Description of typical cases
• Parliamentarian evening in Brussels to transfer our gained knowledge to the MPs
• Transnational conference with Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES) on the topic of posted workers
• Information to raise awareness: Social media activities and website to share the knowledge gained with trade unions and authorities

We are grateful for a close cooperation with our partners: 

Associated Partners

• IGM IG Metall
• FES FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG EV
• Faire Mobilität
• FNV FEDERATIE NEDERLANDSE VAKBEWEGING
• DGB Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund
• EVW Europäischer Verein für Wanderarbeiterfragen e. V.
• ZRSZZ ZAVOD REPUBLIKE SLOVENIJE ZA ZAPOSLOVANJE (Employment Service of Slovenia)
• IRSD MINISTRSTVO ZA DELO DRUZINO SOCIALNE ZADEVE IN ENAKE MOZNOSTI (Labour Inspectorate of the Republic Slovenia, Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities)
• ZZZS ZAVOD ZA ZDRAVSTVENO ZAVAROVANJE SLOVENIJE THE HEALTH INSURANCE INSTITUTE OF SLOVENIA
• OZS OBRTNO-PODJETNISKA ZBORNICA SLOVENIJE (Chamber of Craft and Small Business Slovenia)
• FGS Familia Federatia Generala a Sindicatelor FAMILIA

Duration: 7/2022 untill 12/2023

Financed by the European Union European Social Fund Plus – ESF +
ESF-2021-POW Posting of workers: enhancing administrative cooperation and access to information

Projekt "Network Fair Posting" (01/2021 until 06/2022)

The project established a working transnational cooperation of sector specific cooperation centres within trade unions in sending and receiving countries. These cooperation centres provided a transparent access to qualified information concerning the terms and conditions of employment and administrative requirements to be respected. For solving cases of posted workers, we worked together with public authorities, trade unions, and other relevant stakeholders. The cooperation between experts of trade unions, public authorities and other stakeholders from the sending and receiving countries help to tackle joint action fraud, salary discrimination and social dumping, addressed in the Enforcement Directive.
Furthermore, we transfer the information, which we gain through counselling, to authorities, trade unions, and other relevant stakeholders. With this, we were able to achieve the aspired level of regular cooperation between the involved project partners, public authorities and other stakeholders.

Projekt "Fair Working Conditions"

Report and Evalutation 2019/2020

Posted workers are forced to work in a shadow world of the labour market in which labour law is circumvented and occupational safety and health requirements are undermined. Therefore, the project aims to strengthen the transnational cooperation, raise the accessibility of information and promote the evidence basis regarding the situation of posted workers. The project "FAIR working conditions" has a twofold approach of counselling posted workers and transferring the gained information to trade unions, public authorities,
stakeholders and policy makers. Recently, the work of the project was evaluated, concentrating on the statistical findings of the counselled cases in the information centers, that in were in sum 1800 cases with 1958 workers involved.