Posted Workers - Their Rights and Entitlements

We asked Jeffrey Greene of McCann FitzGerald to examine the current rights and entitlements for “posted workers”. Employers unaware of the law in this area may find themselves dragged into a Gama-like controversy, or subject to litigation in foreign jurisdictions, for failing to comply with minimum employment requirements.


Background

As the provision of cross-border services increased between Member States in the late 1980s, a number of issues of concern began to emerge:

* the potential for exploitation of foreign workers where inferior terms and conditions were applied to them in a host country;
* the potential undermining of local terms and conditions by the use of cheaper foreign labour