EU Supreme Court signal to Lithuanian carriers: machinations will be destroyed and punished

In its ruling, the EU Supreme Court ordered the Dutch Supreme Court to reconsider a case in which the Dutch trade union confederation required Van de Bosch Transporten to pay its long-distance employees from Germany and Hungary in accordance with the agreement of Dutch public transport.

“Under the Dutch collective transport agreement, what the unions themselves negotiate would automatically apply to all workers.

If you transport goods from the Netherlands to Denmark and vice versa, you work there (in the Netherlands) and must pay the Dutch minimum hourly wage.

In Denmark, the court has also ruled in this way and it will henceforth be the case that those who transport goods to and from Denmark via Danish companies will also be subject to the Dutch minimum hourly wage. France had established this since 2018, “Duzi told A. Cuzanauskas.

It is argued that there should be fewer interpretations after the ECJ’s decision on whether long-distance drivers are posted workers or not.

According to the 1996 Posting of Workers Directive, people sent to work in another EU country must receive, for example, that country’s minimum monthly wage (MMA), working hours, social guarantees, etc. in that country. It is important to note that the rules of the country where these regulations are most favorable to the employee apply.

Although the ECJ has noted that this Directive does not normally apply to long-distance drivers, as they only cross other EU countries, there are limits to such interpretation. If a driver spends a lot of time in another country, the Directive should apply to him.

“This is a signal for the Lithuanian employers who have applied to the Court of Justice through our Government to appeal against the Mobility Package, etc.

Western unions want to tell all other parties that are now preparing to go to court (or have already requested it) that there will be no change or deterioration of conditions.

We want to show that the mobility package is one thing, and now Denmark has introduced it, France already has it, the Netherlands will now implement it. This will be done by all countries, be it Benelux or all other Western countries. They will guarantee the protection of their market. As a result, the same conditions are now being tightened in the Mobility Package, as workers do not have the opportunity to defend their conditions against manipulation by the employer.

They will defend their market and the rights of workers. Such objective and task of the unions is to protect their drivers, explained A. Cuzanauskas. – All schemes and machinations will be destroyed. This will be punished. It’s about transparent business, it’s about clear rules. “

As you know, in September the Lithuanian government planned to submit an application to the ECJ to repeal the provisions of the mobility package adopted this year.

“The mobility package, by introducing mandatory return to the country of establishment and restrictions on cabotage, introduces direct market restrictions within the EU, which at the same time will significantly increase environmental pollution from commercial road freight transport.

Furthermore, it does not provide the necessary development of leisure infrastructure for drivers, ignoring the results of the European Commission’s own research. Together with like-minded European Union countries, with whom we have repeatedly raised these issues at EU level, we intend to challenge the legality of these specific provisions of the Mobility Package, ”the Acting Minister of Transport and Communications is quoted Jaroslav Narkevičius in the Government report.

The report also notes that the Commission is currently carrying out an impact assessment of the mobility package, the results of which are expected before the end of this year. This assessment is expected to also take into account the new characteristics of carriers in the event of a pandemic.

“Certain provisions of the Mobility Package will also negatively affect the interests of other EU countries, such as Poland, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Malta, which also plan to turn to the ECJ,” the government said.

According to Sodra, in October, 75.7 thousand people worked in Lithuanian companies. heavy truck and truck drivers. They are the most representative of this profession in the country.