Employment and honest competition in the electro-technical sector Anny Piessens (VOLTA – Belgium) Meeting AIE Stockholm May 2016

VOLTA

Volta is the umbrella organisation of 3 services providers in the electrotechnical sector in Belgium Service provider organisations: Tecnolec: technical information center Vormelek/Formelec: training and education SSF (Social Security Fund): payment of additional worker benefits Executive board: 4 employer associations 3 trade unions

Unfair competition in our sector

Unfair competition Massive influx of cheap foreign labour  unfair competition. Competing in a dishonest way due to a lack of uniform and appropriate European regulations. Also social fraud on a large scale: Companies too often operate illegally and forfeit their social obligations.

Approach

End 2015: creation of a guide for the dialogue with the authorities. 39 specific measures on employment and fair competition. Step 1: national approach: appointments with the federal and regional authories. Step 2: European approach: Sensibilisation of the European Commissioner.

European measures presented by VOLTA

Approach by 7 levers 1. Collecting social security in the country of employment. 2. Stricter control on posting of workers. 3. Better and more efficient controls. 4. Make identification of workers easier. 5. Support the competitiveness of the sector. 6. More appropriate allocation of public contracts. 7. Sensitization.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 1 - Collecting social security in the country of employment: Ensure that social charges are collected in the country where the work is performed. Transfer them to the country of origin.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 2 - Stricter control on posting of workers: Limit the period of posting of workers to 6 months. In the meantime the validity of the A1-form can be limited to 6 months. Give the host member state more tools to question the binding nature. Make sure that the A-1 form is completed in advance.

Measures presented by VOLTA Make carroussels of consecutive temporary assignments impossible. Make European Mediation more efficient. Binding arbitrage decision of the Conciliation Board. The burden of proof should be on the member state of origin.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 3 - Better and more efficient controls: More efficient control More control by inspection departments on the work sites. Restrain abuse regarding people trafficking. Assess the staff and technology of the social inspection services. Reinforce their resources. Platform Undeclared Work (European Level).

Measures presented by VOLTA Better sanctions List the most frequent violations and ensure that the sanctions are applied. European control body and data bases with cross border data. Good exchange of staff and inspection data between member states and mutual cross border checks.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 4 - Make identification of workers easier: A universal and reliable identification tool on work sites is necessary. A European Crossroads bank Social Security. A European Crossroads bank of enterprises. Restrict the number of sub-contractors in the vertical chain to 2 links maximum per specialism. Expand the requirement of recognition as contractor to all the sub-contractors in the chain.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 5 - Support the competitiveness of the sector: Create an information table with salary charges data per hour for 10 member states that procure the highest number of temporary workers to Belgium. and have lower salary charges than Belgium.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 6 - More appropriate allocation of public contracts: Evaluate the laws and arrangements in the context of public contracts. illicit low rates must be avoided and low rates must be better motivated. Instruct the committee to prevent that contracts are allocated on pure quantitative criteria.

Measures presented by VOLTA Lever 7 - Sensitization: Make citizens, companies and public authorities more aware of social fraud. Campaign about what is legal and what not.

Collective approach?

Which countries do have the same or similar problems? Can we go to the European Commission with a collective proposal? In this case: which countries want to participate? What is our approach: Only include the West-European countries? Or also the East-European countries? Other ideas on the approach?

Collective approach? Elaboration: Which country will take the lead (coordinator of this project)? Which countries want to participate? Do we want to establish a European working group? Timing? Any other ideas or suggestions?