Lead by Poland, eleven state members of the EU officially protested against the new rules enacted by France in the field of road transport on last June 8^th. In their sights is a part of the Macron’s law which is to enter into force in July 1^st. According to this text, every truck driver from a company not residing in France has to be paid at the minimum hourly wage during its passage on the French territory. Besides, the truck drivers are required to take with them their contract of employment and a valid secondment certificate. In the wake of the protest, the European Commission initiated an infringement procedure against France in June 2016.  The European Executive considers that these measures are discriminatory because they call into question the free circulation of goods and services guaranteed by many treaties.

As an extremely sensitive political topic, the social regulation in the field of road transport has been the subject of recurrent sparring matches between the member states of the EU. A fault line is clearly established between the more socially advanced countries and the countries which are part of the former communist bloc. The truck drivers from the east have indeed taken a huge benefit from low-cost carriers to build a long-term presence on the domestic market, which weakens the operators from the countries with more advanced social legislation.

After Germany last year, the France is now incurring the wrath of the Commission. In a release published to justify its infringement proceedings against France, the Commission declares that “the application of the minimum wage to certain international transport operations having only a marginal link to the territory of the host Member State cannot be justified, as it creates disproportionate administrative barriers, which prevent the internal market from functioning properly.” Even if it recognizes the principle of a minimum wage, as it ensures social fairness and is in line with the social policy commitment of this Commission, the European executive, “guardian of the treaties” claims that the measures taken by Paris do not comply with the existing standards in EU.

In order to reassure the Franco-German Tandem about its will to fight social dumping, the Commission reiterates its commitment to review the posted workers directive before the end of the year. It also promises a reassessment of the regulations on road transport in the short term.

In this release, the European Commission fails to mention that it had already met frontal opposition from many member states on these two questions. For instance, it received a “yellow card” from 10 western and central European countries about posted workers which severely compromises the medium-term outcome of another phenomenon supposed to favour social dumping on a European scale.

During the latest conferences on transport and logistics, organized by our member Klesia, Dominique Boucher was asked to produce conclusions to this exceptional event which gathered social partners from these fields and covered by Carcept and Ipriac, (Klesia Institutions).

Then, the General Delegate of Ipse focused on the significant harmful effects of a lack of social and economic regulation of the “road cabotage”. A consensus has been established between the representatives of the present companies and labour federations in order to require a greater consideration from the Commission of the dangers of blind deregulatory policies.

We still have, together with parliamentarians and the members of the Economic and Social Committee, to go on with awareness actions and lobbying to create the conditions of a regulated European area of free movement with fair competition and substantial and standardized social rights.