Two years of negotiations were needed before the EU Council of Ministers and European Parliament could secure this directive that amends the previous ‘unassailable’ 1996 directive (Directive 96/71), which had sought to safeguard social minima rules so that the fundamental freedom of service provision within the EU could be readily provided. At the heart of the 28 June 2018 revision was the goal to ensure the principle of ‘equal pay for equal work in the same place’ in order to combat social dumping, which is often associated with the issue of worker posting. Publication on 07 July in the Official Journal of the EU, number 2018/57 of this directive provides an opportunity to review the content of a text that is due to be transposed into national legislation by the EU Member States and thus come into force by 30 July 2020.
Core rules extended. As things currently stand, companies that post workers as part of trans-national services provision have to apply the social legislation of the source country because this is the legislation governing the employment relationship, with the exception however of a ‘hard core’ of host country rules, if they are more favorable. The desired objective is to restrict unfair competition by imposing local rules in areas deemed as essential in terms of the employment relationship, all the while, and in line with the 1996 Directive, avoiding any unfair hindering of the freedom to provide services within the EU area.
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