N-VA wants more ambition in tackling social dumping

The proposal of European Commissioner Marianne Thyssen (CD&V) for a revision of the posting directive would only make a modest contribution to the fight against unfair competition. Even so, parliaments from mainly Eastern European member states have activated the so-called yellow card procedure. They strongly oppose the principle of ‘equal work for equal pay’ introduced by Marianne Thyssen. “That certainly came as no surprise, but it is definitely problematic,” European Parliament member Helga Stevens states.

Secondment concerns temporarily sending employees to a different member country for short-term projects. “Marianne Thyssen wishes to set the maximum secondment period at 24 months, but that can hardly be called temporary,” according to Helga Stevens. “A term of three to six months is much more suitable for the true purpose of secondment.”

Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. Social security is the crux of the issue

In addition, an adjusted secondment duration cannot provide a full solution. The posting directive revised or not, does not concern the European regulations for coordination of social security payments. And that’s the crux of the issue: currently seconded employees can remain subject to the social security laws of their home country over a period of 24 months. This causes our employees to lose out to fierce competition. If we wish to truly fight back against social dumping, social security must be paid in the country of employment.

A good deal for democracy

“The use of yellow cards by national parliaments is a great deal for democracy in Europe,” according to Helga Stevens. “Thus, they can make themselves heard if they think Europe is exceeding its jurisdiction. Now an investigation will have to clearly confirm whether or not the European initiative can be cited as wrongful. If it should turn out that Marianne Thyssen has to go back to the drawing board, then the N-VA at least expects stronger measures to call a halt to improper secondment.”