Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2014-04-17-Speech-4-028-000"
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"en.20140417.5.4-028-000"2
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"Mr President, I rise on behalf of the Committee on Transport and Tourism to present this oral question.
Regulation (EC) No 1071/2009 establishing common rules concerning the conditions to be complied with to pursue the occupation of a road transport operator was adopted in 2009 as part of the roads package. Amongst other things, the regulation is meant to ensure that undertakings have an effective and stable establishment, as part of a set of conditions, and have the status of good repute and the necessary community licence to operate within the internal market.
The regulation came into force in December 2011, making so-called letterbox companies illegal. However, there is evidence that letterbox companies not only continue to exist, but are expanding. They are the main channel for organised, systematic social dumping in the road transport sector. Letterbox companies are used in order to recruit professional drivers from Member States with lower pay and working conditions, with a view to making them work within countries with much higher standards. It is the classic social dumping model. This way road transport operators can save 90% on labour costs and social contributions. In search of a better future for themselves and their families, drivers get caught in the system. They depend on their jobs and accept working on the fringes of the law.
Due to their complex and untransparent construction, letterbox companies make it difficult – if not impossible – for the driver to claim rights or access benefits to which they are entitled, and it is difficult to get unpaid leave, unpaid wages, health care, medical insurance, unemployment and pensions. It is also difficult to track down and challenge the part of the business which is legally responsible for the prejudices brought against drivers. Thus they create a double advantage for the employer – they circumvent the law while ensuring protection and flexibility to those companies practising this system.
Two years into the full application of this regulation, evidence shows that letterbox companies continue to exist and to proliferate. Neither the EU Member States nor the Commission have made any sustained effort to enforce and run controls in line with this regulation. However, despite the calls, there is no data about the extent of the phenomenon that could prove that certain Member States fail to meet their obligations on this regulation. There is no information on measures taken by the Commission to develop the necessary level of cross-border enforcement needed in order to fulfil the aims and objectives of this regulation. Indeed, some Member States hosting letterbox companies show a deliberate lack of interest in cooperating in cross-border investigations, control and sanctions, even on specific request from other Member States.
In Europe, where policymakers declare their full commitment to promoting jobs and addressing the shortages of drivers, more and more professional drivers work away from home for uninterrupted periods of up to three months. They are subject to dubious employment schemes that block their access to social and labour rights, they spend their nights and weekends in their lorries or in substandard accommodation such as improvised barracks, feed on canned food, have no access to basic facilities such as toilets and showers, and drive around Europe on low wages – the clear victims of social dumping. This is unacceptable and must end.
The Committee on Transport and Tourism and Parliament therefore ask the Commission three distinct questions. How many letterbox companies have been closed down in the last two years per Member State, and what information can the Commission provide regarding national control and enforcement measures, or what we believe to be a lack of them? What measures has the Commission undertaken in order to develop effective cross-border enforcement and controls? What measures has the Commission taken against those Member States who have so far failed to adequately implement this regulation and, indeed, in some cases are actively encouraging going against it?
We have in the EU in 2014 a sector in which slave labour is on the rise. That sector is road haulage. Frankly, it needs sorting out and the law not only needs to be upheld but enforced vigorously."@en1
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