Yesterday, the MEPs voted on the provisions on coordination of the social security systems. The provisions included an important principle, which determines where a mobile employee is insured. 345 MEPs voted in favour, 287 against and 24 abstained.
This means that at this particular stage of legislative work it has not been possible to stop the changes, which are unfavourable specifically to poorer members of the community. The legislative process, which concerns the change of the state of insurance of a mobile worker – from the sending country – to the country where the employee usually works, will be continued in this term. The new provisions are independent of the posting of employees.
.@BalasGuillaume’s negotiating mandate concerning #SocialSecurityCoordination revision adopted by @Europarl_EN’s plenary by 345 votes in favour, 287 against and 24 abst. #postedWorkers #postingOfWorkers #travailleursDetaches @Bednarova_EAcz @RHoeltschi @fragomen @GrantThorntonPL pic.twitter.com/nRsqPtR2Mh
— IMP (@IMP_EU) December 11, 2018
If such a solution would be maintained at a later stage of legislative work, this means that the Polish carrier, instead of paying the social insurance in Poland, would pay it to a foreign insurance institution in the country in which he most often performs transport.
Transport and Logistics Poland (TLP) argues that this is another step towards the elimination of one of the five freedoms on which the European Union was built. The union is specifically concerned about the freedom to provide services in the single market. In the case of road transport, this will also affect the freedom of trade in goods.
It is also interesting how the politicians voting for these ideas imagine receiving social benefits in case of mobile workers. What if the Polish driver and his family are insured in a different country every year – depending on where he performs transport? What about health insurance? In case of flu, should the Polish driver and his family be treated where they were insured? For example in Spain? And what about the pension if you lose your health in an accident? How long would the procedure for obtaining such a pension last and who would examine the degree of health loss? TLP has many more such questions.
Photo: Wikipedia/Diliff/CC BY-SA 3.0