Salzburg, Aug 23 (CTK) – Supreme representatives of France, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia agreed to seek a deal on reforming the EU system of posting workers by a European Council meeting in October, Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern said after their talks on Wednesday, Reuters has reported.
The agreement should be reached by the October meeting of the EU countries’ labour and social affairs ministers on a change in the respective EU directive, said Kern who attended the meeting along with French President Emmanuel Macron and the Czech and Slovak prime ministers, Bohuslav Sobotka and Robert Fico.
Macron also mentioned progress achieved in the talks.
The talks mean a real step forward, real progress towards a compromise in October, Macron told reporters after the meeting.
“We shall try to find a compromise in order to find an acceptable form of the directive,” Macron said.
Macron said in the weeks to come expert teams would discuss the details of the directive.
Macron and Kern said the time of the posting should be shortened from two years to one year.
The Czech Republic and Slovakia would like to withdraw the sphere of transport from the directive as the new rules might affect professional drivers.
Macron said the experts should reach a proposal of a fair remuneration, taking into account the conditions of the countries from which the posted workers come.
Sobotka said the directive was a topic dividing the EU.
“There is no doubt that when it comes to the posted workers, the people deserve the same salary for the work in the same place,” Sobotka said.
Slovakia, too, is interested in reaching an agreement by October, Fico said.
However, the directive should add and “take into account the specific social conditions” of individual countries, he added.
The four participants in the meeting in Austria agreed on broad principles, Kern said.
Macron added that those included shortening the time workers can be posted abroad and the issue of fair pay.
The talks of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria and France were to bring their stances closer in a dispute about the unequal earnings between the eastern and western parts of the EU.
While the old EU member countries complain about wage dumping in the posting of workers from the new member states, which threatens jobs in richer countries, the new members fear the tightening of the EU rules that might threaten their firms and primarily afflict professional drivers in international transport.
