PRESS RELEASE, 16.10.2017: UNTRR signed a mutual declaration between transport & logistics associations, bus & coach associations, chambers of commerce and employers’ confederations from 17 EU members countries against the application of the Posting of Workers Directive (96/71/EC) to international transport operations in the EU

Press release

UNTRR signed a mutual declaration between transport & logistics associations, bus & coach associations, chambers of commerce and employers’ confederations from 17 EU members countries against the application of the Posting of Workers Directive (96/71/EC) to international transport operations in the EU

National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) signed a mutual declaration between transport & logistics associations, bus & coach associations, chambers of commerce and employers’ confederations from Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, United Kingdom - against the application of the Posting of Workers Directive (96/71/EC) to international transport operations in the EU.

UNTRR together with the other Signatories to this Declaration disagree with the Commission’s lex specialis proposal, which presupposes that international transport is subject to the Posting of Workers Directive, and which intends to create only a marginal derogation.

Applying the Posting of Workers Directive to all international transports where hypermobile workers cross borders every day goes against the rationale of the Directive itself, as the intention has been to apply the posting rules to employees that carry out work for months or years in the territory of one Member State other than the state in which the driver normally works. The posting rules are thus inapplicable to drivers who work on a daily or even hourly basis in different Member States.

Also, applying the Posting of Workers Directive will not be enforceable due to the large and complex administrative challenges it causes. The Directive will entail applying numerous national legislations to a month’s salary – control authorities and companies will likely have to deal with up to 20 different national legislations depending on the countries they operate in every single month with up to 50 different minimum wages per legislation, depending on the seniority of the driver, on the truck, on the goods being transported etc.

Instead, applying the Posting of Workers Directiv to international transport would affect the Single Market and diminish growth in the EU, as it will increase costs of international transport operations and thus lead to a decrease in cross border trade. This would weaken the Single Market and negatively affect the overall financial state and employment rates of EU.

For these reasons, UNTRR together with the other Signatories to this Declaration are against the application of the Posting of Workers Directive to international road transport operations and therefore urge the institutions to explicitly exclude them from the scope of the Directive.

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National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) is an organisation - professional and employers, non-governmental, independent, apolitical - founded in 1990 on democratic principles, promoting and defending the interests of road transport domestically and internationally, recording since its foundation to the present over 14,000 members - operators carrying out domestic and international freight transport and passengers.