The Trans­Fair Policy Brief high­lights key fin­dings and pro­ject out­co­mes, pro­vi­des good prac­tice input for inspec­tion aut­ho­ri­ties and makes pro­po­sals for an effec­tive and prac­ti­ca­ble regu­la­tive frame­work to tackle labour law infrin­ge­ments in cross-bor­­­der road trans­port. The Policy Brief is avail­able in Eng­lish, Ger­man, Polish, Czech, Slovenian

The Bel­gian trade union and Trans­Fair pro­ject part­ner BTB-ABVV publis­hed a book­let in 10 lan­guages assis­ting dri­vers to use the vehi­cle’s tacho­graph to docu­ment their working, avai­la­bi­lity and dri­ving time.

The Euro­pean Labour Aut­ho­rity con­cen­tra­tes its acti­vi­ties in 2022 on the road trans­port sec­tor. Several legis­la­tive chan­ges at Euro­pean level impac­ting on the sec­tor and the often pro­ble­ma­tic employ­ment sita­tion of inter­na­tio­nal dri­vers, as impres­si­vely docu­men­ted throughout the Trans­Fair pro­ject, made ELA choose this sec­to­ral focus, improve infor­ma­tion for sta­ke­hol­ders and enhance coope­ra­tion of enfor­c­ment aut­ho­ri­ties. All acti­vi­ties and relevant

A news­let­ter briefly resu­mes the Trans­Fair fin­dings and actions. The news­let­ter is avail­able in Eng­lish, Ger­man, Slo­ve­nian, Czech and Polish.

One of the main aims of the Trans­Fair pro­ject is to pro­vide dri­vers with reli­able and simple infor­ma­tion about their rights on inter­na­tio­nal jour­neys. So far, Trans­Fair part­ners have pro­du­ced leaf­lets for dri­vers from Slo­ve­nia on jour­neys in Aus­tria, for dri­vers from Poland on jour­neys in Ger­many. Now ano­t­her leaf­let is out pro­vi­ding infor­ma­tion for dri­vers from Cze­chia on journeys

Ano­t­her Trans­Fair report is out now! It explo­res working con­di­ti­ons and com­pany stra­te­gies in cross-bor­­­der road trans­port in Aus­tria and Slo­ve­nia. Down­load here: 

For more than one year, the Trans­Fair pro­ject team col­la­bo­ra­ted and worked out how to bet­ter approach dri­vers in inter­na­tio­nal trans­port and how to improve trans­port uni­ons cross-bor­­­der coope­ra­tion. The trai­ning mate­rial, autho­red by San­dra Stern (FORBA), pro­vi­des in-depth infor­ma­tion, best prac­ti­ces and tools for uni­ons active in the trans­port sec­tor to deve­lop fur­ther their acti­vi­ties and endeavours.

© Faire Mobi­li­tät On July 1st the two Trans­Fair part­ners were in Poland to inform truck dri­vers on the route from Swiecko to Poz­nan about their rights. The dri­vers they met repor­ted that their employ­ers would only pay the Polish mini­mum wage of 2,800 Zlt (€620). The wage would not be adjus­ted even if they drove tours in Ger­many. This

In Cze­chia, the recruit­ment of third coun­try natio­nals into the Czech eco­nomy, inclu­ding the trans­port sec­tor, is of vital impor­t­ance due to a mas­sive labour shor­tage. Gover­ne­men­tal pro­gram­mes allow for the tar­get­ted recruit­ment of workers from third coun­tries. The Trans­Fair rese­arch found out that dri­vers from third coun­tries can expe­ri­ence various forms of non-com­­­pli­ant employer beha­viour: they were for­ced to

Trans­Fair’s first coun­try spe­ci­fic report deals with employ­ment regu­la­tion, recruit­ment prac­ti­ces and working con­di­ti­ons of third coun­try natio­nals in Polish road freight trans­port. Third coun­try natio­nals, mainly from Ukraine, have become key per­son­nel in the Polish road trans­port indus­try and are a con­sti­tu­tive ele­ment of Polish hau­liers’ com­pe­ti­tive advan­tage in the EU, mainly due to the low labour costs. Recruitment

Lynn de Smedt and Fre­de­ric De Wis­pe­leare pro­vi­ded and exten­sive report about the quan­ti­ta­tive dimen­sion and eco­no­mic rela­ti­ons in the Euro­pean freight trans­port mar­ket. A con­cise sum­mary, inclu­ding illus­tra­tive graphs about eco­no­mic rela­ti­ons in the road freight sec­tor bet­ween Aus­tria and Slo­ve­nia, the Czech Repu­blic and Bel­gium as well as Ger­many and Poland can be found in the fol­lowing publication:

Faire Mobi­li­tät and Soli­dar­ność have publis­hed a leaf­let for lorry dri­vers on inter­na­tio­nal jour­neys. The leaf­let pro­vi­des infor­ma­tion about mini­mum wage, prac­ti­cal tips for docu­men­ting working time and con­tact points for dri­vers’ sup­port in Ger­many and Poland. The leaf­let is dis­tri­bu­ted in reach-out acti­vi­ties on the road.

Lynn de Smedt and Fre­de­ric De Wis­pe­leare con­clu­ded the first Trans­Fair pro­ject out­put. They exami­ned the quan­ti­ta­tive dimen­sion and eco­no­mic rela­ti­ons in the Euro­pean freight trans­port mar­ket: “Road freight trans­port in the EU. In ser­ach of a balance bet­ween the eco­no­mic and social dimen­sion of the inter­nal mar­ket. A quan­ti­ta­tive sec­to­ral analysis” 

The Euro­pean Court of Jus­tice finally reached a ver­dict in the case Van den Bosch vs FNV (C‑815/18). The court deci­ded that trans­port workers fall under the Pos­ting of Workers Direc­tive, howe­ver a suf­fi­ci­ent con­nec­tion to the ter­ri­tory of the workers’ recei­ving coun­try must be pro­ved to bene­fit from the labour pro­tec­tion of this state. You can find the whole verdict

The mobi­lity package has been appro­ved and some of the regu­la­ti­ons are in place since August 20, 2020. To keep an over­view over the new regu­la­ti­ons, the Euro­pean Com­mis­sion, publis­hed Q&As to pres­sing topics, such as the return of the dri­ver to “home”, wee­kly rests, multi-man­­­ning and breaks or manual record­ing of bor­der cros­sing. https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/road/mobility-package-qa_en?utm_source=ETF+Contacts+Database&utm_campaign=69568a90a9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_11_30_04_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_a3110b567d-69568a90a9-114885869

The Trans­Fair action that was jointly orga­nised by the Aus­trian union vida and the Slo­ve­nian union nsds recei­ved par­ti­cu­lar public atten­tion. Find in the links below, a broad­cas­ting con­tri­bu­tion and a news­pa­per arti­cle brin­ging inter­views with the two trans­port uni­ons and main messages of the action to a wider audi­ence. tvhttps://www.rtvslo.si/gospodarstvo/veliko-soferjev-ne-dobi-placila-za-opravljeno-delo-delodajalci-placajo-kolikor-sami-zelijo/534857?fbclid=IwAR03bT_q4h0Y3rr3XDJ6oOjXFOu9UZnMXDvS5gQQQX5SphTUhhE61XL0Eyo news­pa­per arti­clehttps://www.vecer.com/vozniki-tovornjakov-oskodovani-za-300-do-500-evrov-na-mesec-10215198

On July 31st, the legis­la­tive acts nego­tia­ted wit­hin the so cal­led Mobi­lity Package have been publis­hed in the Offi­cial Jour­nal of the Euro­pean Union. They con­cern: rest and dri­ving peri­ods for dri­vers, new pro­vi­si­ons for intro­du­cing the smart tacho­graph, new pro­vi­si­ons con­cer­ning access to the inter­na­tio­nal road hau­lage mar­ket and con­cer­ning con­di­ti­ons to be com­plied with to pur­sue the occupation

After a very long period of nego­tia­ti­ons, the mobi­lity package for road trans­port has been appro­ved by the Euro­pean par­lia­ment on July 8, 2020. It will bring new regu­la­ti­ons for pos­ting of workers in road trans­port, new regu­la­ti­ons for dri­vers’ rest time and new mea­su­res to detect let­­­ter-box com­pa­nies in road trans­port. Here, you find the links to the adopted

The Dutch union FNV is one of the par­ties in the “van den Bosch Trans­por­ten” case cur­r­ently at stake at the Euro­pean Court of Jus­tice (see: Post “Pos­ting of dri­vers before the ECJ”). The case deals with the ques­tion if pos­ting of workers rules should also be app­li­ca­ble to truck dri­vers that carry out inter­na­tio­nal trans­ports. Click here for FNV’s

Truck dri­vers are among the “sys­­­tem-rele­­­vant” pro­fes­si­ons, not only in Corona times. In order to ensure the free move­ment and sup­ply of goods even now, dri­vers have to work under dif­fi­cult con­di­ti­ons that are hazar­dous to health. Ins­tead of impro­ved and safer working con­di­ti­ons and the reco­gni­tion of the “sys­tem rele­vance” of their acti­vity, dri­vers are con­fron­ted with an extension

Will the van den Bosch case before the ECJ cla­rify whe­ther and which cross-bor­­­der road trans­port ser­vices are sub­ject to the pos­ting of workers direc­tive? On April 30, the advo­cate gene­ral publis­hed its opi­nion con­cer­ning the van den Bosch Trans­por­ten vs.Federatie Neder­landse Vak­be­we­ging case. Princi­pally, he con­firms that the direc­tive 96/71/EC (“pos­ting of workers direc­tive”) also app­lies to a worker