The FNV Transport and Logistics trade union has won an important legal victory to ensure that Hungarian drivers working for the Dutch haulier Van den Bosch Transporten get the pay and conditions set by the sector agreement. The company had been using its Hungarian branch as a subcontractor with Hungarian drivers flown into the Netherlands to drive Hungarian vehicles and paid Hungarian wages. The European Transport Workers' Federation sees this as an important case, saying that the Posted Workers Directive is underused in the sector but can provide some protection against social dumping.
Read more at > ETF (EN)
And at > FNV (NL)
Important court victory against social dumping
More like this
Important legal victory on fixed-term contracts
The JHL public services union has won a landmark ruling on the used of fixed-term contracts. The worker concerned had had eight consecutive fixed-term contracts over a period of six years and the employer had tried to argue that this was permissible because the job was related to dealing with annual applications to the European Union’s structural funds. The court rejected the employers’ argument and awarded compensation to the employee. Read more at > JHL (EN)
Care workers win important legal victory
Seven care workers, supported by the Fagforbundet public services union, have won a significant court case that rules they were wrongly classified as self-employed and so were denied the rights of employees. The workers took the case against the Baos private care company and their claim covers the wide range of benefits and rights that they should have been entitled to under the Work Environment Act. These cover paid holidays, overtime pay, working time, sick pay, pensions and other issues. The ruling means the company will have to pay the seven workers around NOK 5.5m (EUR 560000) to
ETUC warns of social dumping threat from Court judgement
A new ruling from the European Court of Justice has created more concern among European trade unions that collective agreements are being undermined by internal market rules. The Rüffert case concerned an attempt by the regional government of Lower Saxony in Germany to ensure that construction workers employed on a prison building contract were paid in line with the relevant collective agreement. The authorities discovered that workers employed by a Polish sub-contractor were begin paid less than 50% of the rate in the relevant collective agreement. The European Court of Justice ruled that the