EUROPE – The ongoing debate regarding the liberalisation of the road haulage market takes a new turn today as transport unions say they will ‘storm’ the European Commission with a barrage of complaints via e mail, fax and using social networking sites expressing the view that, three years into the adoption of the new road cabotage rules, the sector is not ready for more opening of the market. In the past few years we have seen vast changes to many countries native haulage practices with tension between road freight representatives from different states as they compete for work.
Now the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF) has deemed today a day of action, mobilising trade union activists and rank and file members to protest and to ask the European Commission to drop their plan for further liberalisation and step up efforts to eradicate social dumping and improve enforcement of social, labour and road transport.
In 2013, the European Commission is expected to launch a proposal to further liberalise the domestic road transport markets by lifting all cabotage restrictions. The unions argue that Europe is divided by huge disparities in terms of wages and working conditions. In the given conditions, with Eastern European drivers being paid up to ten times less than their colleagues from the EU15 further liberalisation is unacceptable.
Three years ago today, on 14 May 2010, new road cabotage rules came into force in the European Union, allowing operators to carry out only 3 journeys within a 7-day period on a domestic market of another EU Member State (Regulation (EC) No 1072/2009). The rules were an indication that, on the occasion, law makers acknowledged the disparities in social and fiscal conditions in the EU 27, and intended to limit the risk for further social dumping and unfair competition in the sector. Cristina Tilling, ETF Political Secretary points out how unions feel the policy has failed saying:
“In the past three years the road cabotage rules failed to be properly applied and controlled by the EU Member States, while the European Commission has constantly promoted a flexible interpretation of these rules. This, combined with a lack of interest to enforce EU social and labour laws in road transport such as the posting of workers and the Rome I Regulation, led to a massive spread of social dumping practices from international to domestic transport by road.”
The ETF says that since the changes domestic road transport journeys are carried out on a large scale with vehicles and drivers registered in Member States with low fiscal, social and labour conditions, mostly via the illegal letter box company system and that a full and frank debate is necessary to remedy what it terms ‘the critical social and labour situation in the road transport sector.’
The unions view is not shared by all and the European Association for Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs services (CLECAT) two weeks ago published its own arguments for opening up the system in a document supporting liberalisation whilst acknowledging the impossibilities of policing the rules as they stand. CLECAT calls for more rapid pan-EU harmonisation of the rules governing the sector saying this would have been achieved with the complete removal of restrictions on cabotage operations.Photo: The Brussels Berlaymont building (home to the European Commission) with its banner saying – ‘It’s about Europe, it’s about you! Join the debate!’ Courtesy ETF.
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