IRU welcomes the European Commission’s Fair Labour Mobility Package published today, in particular its drive to digitalise social security and qualification procedures, improve interoperability between EU systems, and reduce the recurring administrative burden of cross-border labour mobility which falls disproportionately on small and medium sized firms, of which the vast majority of road transport operators are.
The package combines measures on social security, the portability and recognition of skills and qualifications, including those of third-country nationals, and a strengthened mandate for the European Labour Authority (ELA).
IRU EU Advocacy Director Raluca Marian said, “IRU supports the Commission’s ambition to make labour mobility both fairer and simpler across the EU, protecting mobile workers while making compliance more manageable for the companies that employ them. We are particularly grateful to Executive Vice-President Roxana Mînzatu for putting digitalisation at the heart of these reforms.”
Of particular importance for road transport is the proposed European Social Security Pass (ESSPASS), which aims to further digitalise the issuance and cross-border verification of social security documents, including the portable document A1. Greater interoperability between EU systems also offers significant potential to reduce repetitive data submissions and make compliance and enforcement more efficient.
IRU also welcomes the move towards digital and more easily verifiable qualifications and efforts to simplify the recognition of qualifications obtained outside the EU. Road freight and passenger transport continue to face a structural shortage of professional drivers. Faster and simpler recognition procedures can therefore contribute to more effective legal recruitment from third countries, while maintaining EU qualification and safety standards.
On skills portability more broadly, IRU calls on the Commission to further ensure that the new framework, combined with transport specific measures, will facilitate simpler recognition of qualified professional drivers from third countries, as part of a realistic response to the structural driver shortage affecting road freight and passenger transport across the EU.
The strengthening of the ELA’s mandate is an additional reform that can help deliver fairer and more consistent enforcement across the EU. For the highly mobile road transport sector, stronger enforcement should go hand in hand with greater legal certainty, uniform interpretation and practical tools that make compliance easier.
“A stronger ELA should mean more consistent enforcement, greater legal certainty and clearer practical guidance for operators and drivers across Europe, with a clear focus on road transport as one of the most highly regulated and cross-border sectors of the European economy,” said Raluca Marian.
The ELA’s ongoing work on the remuneration of posted drivers is particularly important in this respect. IRU calls for clear and practical EU-wide guidance and tools that would allow operators to determine the applicable remuneration requirements before a transport operation takes place.
As the proposals now move through the legislative process, IRU will assess whether their implementation delivers on this promise of simplification without creating new burdens.
“For road transport, success will ultimately be measured by whether the new rules reduce repetitive administrative procedures and deliver simpler, faster and more predictable processes for operators and drivers in practice.
“It will be important to ensure that new requirements remain proportionate and do not result in excessive additional costs or administrative burdens for operators,” concluded Raluca Marian.