Project REWICOOP. Rights to Work Info Centres of Transnational Cooperation was created to pay attention to  posted workers situation and rights. It is implemented  in Poland,Spain, Norway, Romania, Lithuania and in Slovakia. Its main idea is to promote provisions of the directive concerned rights and obligations of such employees. This project i salso based on strenghtening cooperations among organizations from member countries. Within the framework of the project there were held multiple meetings like for example in Vilnius and in Madrid. During the meeting  situation of posted workers in partnership countries was presented as well as representatives from trade unions and public institutions made statements. What is more, also a debate on opportunities for overall improvement of the situation took place. The project includes promotion of posted workers rights and of the best practices for posting workers through the new „Post Employees Rights” website (http://postedrkersrights.eu).undefined


Promotional video PL https://www.dropbox.com/s/a6vjjvteu46wmfb/REWICoop...

Promotional video EN https://www.dropbox.com/s/gqrvqkp6fef1pxy/REWICoop...


The result of all activities and project itself was:
• ensured greater cross-border cooperation between States
• strengthened rights of posted workers as well as delivered awarness about this subject
• greater involvement of public institutions and NGOs in development of measures for transposition of the EU Posted Workers Directive.

Detailed project objectives:

  • To improve transnational administrative cooperation between national competent bodies and social partners involved in the monitoring and correct application of Posting of Workers, Directive 96/71/EC. The use by national authorities of control measures that in some cases go beyond what is strictly necessary and justifiable to verify compliance with the Directive and ensure protection of posted workers. This will further lead to defining rules of cooperation and mutual agreements.
  • To increase mutual trust among stakeholders, including promoting exchanges of relevant officials and training. The greater communication and lobby meetings with all stakeholders during the project implementation will sustain a follow-up cooperation and internal control/monitoring mechanisms.
  • To develop and promote best practice initiatives in the area of posting of workers in the framework of temporary provision of services via joint inspection visits, international trainings and international conference.
  • To provide better information for posted workers and multinational companies regarding terms and conditions for post of workers in the EU via launching web-based information centre.
  • Last but not least as final result of the project, partners and participants of international events will provide common propositions and recommendations for the decision making bodies at national and European level in order to improve the general rules for posting of workers.
  • To improving expertise in the area of posting of workers and equip trade unions with knowledge and skills for monitoring the posting of workers.


POSTED WORKERS IN EUROPEAN UNION

2 mil posted workers in the EU, 44% growth during the last years, most of those workers come from neighbouring states, 80% in construction sector – the EU Directive 96/71 was addressing the situation in the EU that arose in early 70s.
5 countries receiving workers (Spanish workers France, Germany, Portugal, the UK)
In Spain 44.000 posted workers in the sectors of transport, agriculture, services
Poland accounts for nearly 25% posted workers in the EU
Undocumented posted workers- undeclared workers 82% unreported
Lithuania 19.000 posted out and over 1000 hosted in LT
Romania 57.000 posted and received 9000
60-80% of the posted workers are not reported
Average EU hourly wage minimum – 18,92 euro (till now Polish workers were paid 0,5 euro hour and in Romania 1,5 euro/hou
POSTED WORKERS IN LITHUANIA:

Number of posted workers is pretty small in Lithuania and most of posted worked are employed in construction sector. Companies which want to employ posted workers have to inform Labour Inspectorate in advance and now also foreign companies have to establish a contact point in Lithuania for communication with national authorities. Labour Inspectorate checks who pay the additional expenses of the posted worker, what is the period of posting and if posted worker returns to sending country after that period. In Lithuania a project for transport sector workers was implemented – at the border crossing point the information point and informative board was placed in order to ensure availability of information related to work abroad. Project is considered as successful and can be considered as best practice to be implemented in other sectors and other EU Member States.

POSTED WORKERS IN POLAND

Polish legislation on posting of workers is adopted June 10, 2016 and it refers to the law on foreign workers in Poland (agreed salaries, equal working conditions and respecting the labour market rules of Polish market)
The employment agreements are mostly on company level (bi-partite consultations) and there is a lack of sectoral collective agreements – employers are reluctant to apply the sectoral collective agreements (proposal 1: extend the collective agreements to all workers on the respective EU MS market, if possible sectoral collective agreement)
Competition is based on low salaries and it has direct impact on the posted workers trends Poland to other EU MS
Temporary work agencies are arranging the permissions of posted workers, however the Labour Inspection is responsible for checking of those contacts and the inspectors are granted additional powers posted workers information on the applicable labour legislation in Poland. The OPZZ is developing its sub-website to greater inform about the posting of workers regulations, however it is important to elaborate on the system of sanctions as now the sanctions for breaching of the regularities stipulate din the directive are very low, from 270 euro up to 7000 euro (Proposal 2: Established a system of sanctions and complaints)
Right now there are no sanctions in case of lack of complaints. (Proposal 3: The law for posted workers the sanctions are in place even if there are no complaints – in case the employer has not submitted the information about the posted worker or if they failed to report any change of the working conditions, or for nay uncompleted information).
In case the employers have not correct employee documentation in mother language that leads to workers exploitation. (Proposal 4: contractual language and communication of rights of workers and related issues shall be in the mother language of the employee in case of not stated good knowledge and understanding of the language of the contract signature).

POSTED WORKERS IN SPAIN

The Directive 96/71 was transposed in Spain in 1999, transnational provision of services.
The Law 45/1999 sets the min. working conditions for posted workers – it extends the scopes of exclusion – merchants, maritime workers, training activities – these are excluded – area of extending of the protection of workers
Law 45/1999 guarantees the rights of the posted workers in Spain. The Labour Code and Civic Code is amended by the law 45 applicable to all people working on the territory of Spain
Law 45/1999 provides greater level of prevention of the minors and pregnant women in comparison with the Directive
The application of the equal treatment of workers, rights of assembling, trade union membership and protests, physical protection, integrity and privacy of workers
Remuneration of posted workers – it is mandatory for company to remunerate them with equal payment
Spain provisions about posted workers and migrants – the legislation contemplates the involvement of the trade unions – trade unions can intervene at all stages of the defence and complaint resolution and judicial process
Main constraints: lower paid work category + extended working daily working hours – mostly affecting the immigrant workers – Moroccans, South Americans and Chinese
61% undocumented migrant workers in Spain
The Spanish Ministry of Social Affairs has transferred competences into 17 regions across the country that is supposed also to promote regulations concerning the posted workers. The Ministry is promoting web-supported services only in ES and EN (legal framework, the scope of the application of the regulation, conditions, the trade union representations)
The website gives instructions also on how to report the workers that are posted abroad
Structure of the Labour Inspection duties:
Employment and social security + (2) safety and health at work
Plus participation in international missions of the labour inspections

Inspectors are monitoring and controlling the posting of workers

Three main areas of responsibilities:

Social security
Employment conditions and employment relations
Prevention
In Spain 1800 officers, 2067 inspectors and 840 supportive assistant inspectors, 2067 will be dedicated to this area. In the 15 EU MS one inspector is responsible for 12.000 employed, and in Spain one per 23.000 employed persons. That creates difficulties in development of any statistical reports. In 2015, about 21 547 actions were taken by the labour inspectors towards foreign workers – 2287 files opened in the event of non compliance and infringement of rights/labour market standards, fines given for 22.991.597,38 euro, no official statistics on transnational level. Based on collaboration with other EU states there are some data. In general there are 26.156 files opened in 2015 in the EU MS. The Spanish Labour Inspection has 4 international agreements with Portugal, France, Italy and Romania.