This working paper investigates how the Posting of Workers Directive interplays with and is influenced by other EU and national rules and regulations on labour law, migration law, social security, health insurance, temporary agency work, and company law and how this might lead to potential inequalities, unfair competition, and exploitation of posted workers, and identify gaps between national policy and implementation practice. Researchers do that through the insights collected from 92 interviews with employers, public authorities, social partners, and non-governmental organisations.

The research takes a comparative cross-national approach that includes six EU Member States (Austria, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia) and two candidate countries (Serbia and North Macedonia). Research findings indicate that while posting regulation is designed at the EU level, the understandings of what the rules mean and how they are embedded in national legal frameworks vary.

The gap between legal procedures and practices in posting rule enactment: a comparative working paper is  available here.

This working paper is prepeared as part of the POW-Bridge project (Bridging the gap between legislation and practice in the posting of workers). The main goals of the project are to study gaps between procedures (legal basis) and practices (experiences) in the rules governing the posting of workers, and to develop and share effective solutions for posting companies and agencies tasked with enforcing posting legislation. Therefore, a particular focus is on the possible challenges resulting from interactions between the revised posting Directive passed in 2018 and other EU and national legislation.

The project is being implemented in 8 countries across Europe (Austria, Slovenia, Italy, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and North Macedonia). The project is governed by the European Centre for Social Welfare Policy and Research from Vienna, while activities in Serbia are run by the Center for Social Policy. The project is financed by the EU as part of the EaSI programme.