ELA supported another Week of Action in Road Transport in numerous Member States partnering with the European Roads Policing Network (ROADPOL).
Joint inspections contribute to prevention of social dumping in road transport. More specifically they should ensure adequate protection of road transport workers’ labour and social rights, guarantee fair competition and improve road safety, the objectives set by the Mobility Package I.
The ELA Week of Action in Road Transport in numbers:
“I think joint inspections are useful for us as inspectors, to exchange experiences on how we do the inspections in real life so that we can learn from the differences. This leads to even better cooperation across borders”
Mr Gundersen Jensen’s experience is that more and more companies now know what posting of drivers requires: “In the beginning we had daily trouble getting the posting declarations. Now, most companies know what they need to produce. Basic controls on the road have become much faster.”
The joint action to inspect vehicles on the road took place during the week 19 – 25 February in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Malta and Romania. In total 309 inspectors from transport, police, labour and many other national authorities joined forces with the observers from nine Member States: Austria, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden.
Cosmin Boiangiu, the Executive Director of the European Labour Authority, took part in the biggest joint inspection of this week of action, which was hosted by Belgium and involved over 250 officers from multiple Member States.
“ELA strives to enhance cross-border cooperation between European countries in road transport. I was impressed to see the level of inter-agency cooperation that exists in Belgium, partially thanks to the coordinating role of its Social Intelligence and Investigation Service. It was for the first time that both social partner organisations, employers' organisations and trade unions, took part in a joint inspection as observers.”
The uncovered infringements against road transport regulations resulted in total fines of about 140,000 euros.
The infringements ranged from minor to more serious ones. They concerned mainly technical issues related to road safety, driving and resting times, use of tachographs as well as working conditions (such as wages) and illegal employment. Wages in cabotage operations will be investigated further with the help of the IMI information exchange system. There will be follow-up checks in other areas too concerning for example potential economic exploitation and identity fraud.
The Weeks of Action in Road Transport will continue throughout 2024, strengthening the efforts to promote fair working conditions and road safety in this very transnational sector of the economy.
1 The methodology of “clean” checks may differ among Member States.
