The European approach to social dumping lacks ambition

With a new guideline about secondments, the European Commission wishes to fight unfair competition on the internal market. That is good news for enterprises and employees, especially in the construction, cleaning and transport industries, because many Flemish SMEs are still under pressure from social dumping. However, European Parliament member Helga Stevens and Parliament member Wouter Raskin want to see a more ambitious directive.

“Companies in Europe must still be able to send employees to other member states for temporary, short-term service assignments,” Stevens states. “But the secondment term of twenty-four months is too long for N-VA. A maximum of three to six months is more suitable for the actual purpose of secondment. If the term is longer, then 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 contributions must be paid in the country where the work takes place. For industries with specific needs, such as research and development and ICT we can be more flexible.”

Monitoring must improve

“Moreover, the current federal checks for abuse must be improved,” Member of Parliament Wouter Raskin thinks. “Except for a paltry little form, the social inspection has virtually nothing to monitor. And there is still no European database with personal data and social security data. As a result, sometimes months of waiting go by before essential data from the home country arrives.