Finland Times

 

Minister of Labour Lauri Ihalainen. Photo Lehtikuva.

Minister of Labour Lauri Ihalainen hailed on Wednesday the European Parliament’s decision to pass the enforcement directive on the posting of workers to compel employers to abide by the terms of employment of posted workers in practice.

 

According to a press release of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, the European parliament took the decision to pass the directive in its session on Wednesday. 

 

"The enforcement directive is a significant step forward in the improvement of the rights of employees. Thanks to the directive, supervision of the terms of employment of posted workers will become more efficient," said Minister Ihalainen.

 

Posted workers are employees who are posted by an employer in one country to work temporarily in another EU member state for the purpose of providing cross-border services. For instance, Finland has many posted workers in the construction sector.

 

The directive prevents circumvention by defining the situations which genuinely involve sending an employee from one country to another. It makes for more efficient collaboration among member states through electronic exchange of information, so that officials might more easily get information on the terms of employment of employees. 

 

In addition, officials of the country where the work is taking place are required to collaborate more actively with labour market organisations on informing foreign service providers about the terms of employees' employment.

 

Next the EU Council of Ministers will confirm the regulation, after which the member states will be required to transpose the changes provided in the directive into national legislation within two years.