Today, Friday 26 March, the European Commission organised a social partner hearing on seasonal workers to follow-up on the guidelines published by the Commission and the resolution adopted by the European Parliament in summer last year.
The European Commission had also invited the EFBWW to participate in the hearing.
At the meeting, we first of all expressed our surprise and concern for having been invited, as construction is not a seasonal activity. "Houses, schools, bridges, roads are built all year long. Construction is not a seasonal activity and construction workers are not seasonal workers. This must be clear to all”.
At the same time, we underlined that in the construction industry many workers are mobile workers, mainly posted workers. And the COVID-19 crisis has highlighted, once again, many problems related to the precarious nature of their situation, i.e. problems related to transport, unacceptable accommodation conditions, lack of social protection...
These are not new problems. EFBWW has raised these concerns time and time again as in our COVID-19 motion and on our 26 demands guide the economic recovery in the Covid-19 era.
A particular concern however is the role of intermediaries. In that regard, we called for new legislative proposals to tackle the growing problem of irregular and fraudulent intermediaries in the construction industry, be they temporary employment agencies, placement agencies, etc.
The EFBWW is preparing clear proposals in that area.