Vol. 466 No. 6
133 Mr. Costello asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the steps, if any, he will take to curb the practice of employers posting construction workers abroad which gives rise to tax and welfare abuses in view of the fact that there are inadequate regulations and there is inadequate co-ordination within the EU. [12408/96]
134 Mr. Hughes asked the Minister for Enterprise and Employment the steps, if any, he will take, in conjunction with his European colleagues, to ensure that a European posting Directive is adopted and that there is effective co-operation between the United Kingdom, German, Irish and Dutch authorities to prevent abuses of Irish construction workers seeking to work in Germany. [12108/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 133 and 134 together.
Under Article 3 (c) of the Treaty on European Union the abolition, as between member states, of obstacles to the free movement of persons and services constitutes one of the objectives of the Union. In 1991 the European Commission introduced a proposal for a Directive on the posting of workers. Earlier this month a common position was formally adopted at a meeting of the EU Social Affairs Council on a draft of this Directive. Ireland supported the draft Directive in principle and we have been negotiating to ensure that the objective of the Directive will be achieved and that it will facilitate rather than hinder the free movement of services.
The Directive, when finalised, will apply to undertakings that post workers to another member state to provide temporary services. It will oblige employers in such circumstances to apply the labour legislation and the terms and conditions of employment of the host country, that is, the country to which they are posted, to such workers.
Article 4 of the draft Directive requires that member states shall make provision for co-operation between the public authorities responsible for monitoring the operation of the Directive. Such co-operation shall, in particular, consist of exchanges of information on the cross-border supply of workers including information on abuses or possible cases of unlawful cross-border activities.
