Posted workers: it's high time to revise the directive

In March 2016, the European Commission sent the European Parliament and Council a proposal for a directive amending the infamous Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services.

In August 2017, French president Emmanuel Macron returned the issue of posted workers to the centre of the European project when, during his trip to central Europe, he re-launched the debate concerning the reform of the directive, saying that he considered it to be a condition for maintaining "European unity".

As representatives of organised civil society in France and in Europe, we welcome this move. Since 2015, the French Economic, Social and Environmental Council and the European Economic and Social Committee have been working tirelessly to push for reform in the status of posted workers, publishing opinions on the issue in September 2015 and December 2016.

The number of posted workers is growing steadily year by year, resulting in dysfunctions between countries. The French ESEC, in particular, has exposed large-scale fraud, cases of workers being underpaid and denied their rights, and the creation of fake companies.

• It is therefore vital for the directive to be revised as a matter of urgency, but such moves are still meeting with a degree of resistance. At European level, the issue divides the business world, not least because the prospect is alarming to companies in the Member States with the lowest salaries. And in 2016, a number of ministers of labour published an opinion piece, which included proposals made by the French ESEC, calling for decent living and working conditions for all, pay equivalent to workers in the host country from the first day of posting, and efforts to clamp down on companies created for the sole purpose of taking advantage of differences in wage costs between EU countries. But the project never got off the ground, due to strong opposition from the heads of state and government of 11 countries who felt that it was a national matter, despite the fact that it related to a European directive.

The EU must strive for continuous improvement for all. It must aim for harmonisation – but always upward harmonisation, never downward.

We therefore firmly believe that we need to improve protection for workers and reduce social dumping, which also leads to business dumping. The principle of equal pay for equal work in the same place is the cornerstone of the pillar of social rights in Europe.

We encourage the Council and the European Parliament to go further. The social partners and collective agreements must serve as a point of reference for determining remuneration levels for the workers concerned. We call for the temporary nature of posting to be maintained. We want the Member States to cooperate more closely, by pooling the data at their disposal in order to thwart fraud and prevent unfair competition. We insist that the directive must remain applicable to the road transport sector. We want to see concrete steps to ensure that posted workers are enrolled in a social security scheme in good time – that is to say, a little while before the start of the posting – and we think it would be worthwhile to create a "European posted workers' card" to facilitate checks and simplify procedures.

The national authorities should respond to the expectations of organised civil society, including at their meetings at European level. Our ambition is to change public perceptions of the EU so that, instead of appearing to be responsible for a decline or stagnation in living and working conditions, it is once again seen as an effective driver of economic, social and environmental progress for all.