Brussels, June 25 (CTK special correspondent) – Social dumping, or countries’ competition on the labour market by means of different minimum wages and social insurance, must not complicate the free movement of labour in the EU, this is the result of Czech PM Bohuslav Sobotka’s talks in Brussels Thursday.
Sobotka (Social Democrats, CSSD) had talks with the heads of government of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden on the sidelines of the two-day EU summit starting Thursday.
Sobotka said social dumping is a serious problem in Europe and that there exists no simple solution to it.
There have always been and will be states with different living standards, in which people will be getting different wages and will have different living costs.
“This surfaced very precisely when Germany introduced a minimum wage that complicates the export of our services, for instance, in the sphere of forwarding,” Sobotka said.
However, the fact that people from the east and southeast of Europe are ready to work even for the minimum wage in Germany, for instance, should not complicate the free movement of labour.
“We definitely support the preservation of the common market and the free movement of persons. But it is important that strict rules be applied to avert the abuse of people and employees’ willingness to work under worse working conditions,” Sobotka said.
He said it is necessary to seek a solution through exerting pressure for the observance of labour law and the valid rules and through carrying out labour market inspections.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls proposed earlier this year that the EU or at least the euro zone should start considering introducing a single minimum wage.
