Adding on to its series started with the Laval case the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued its judgement in a case against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg brought to it by the European Commission under Article 226 EC. The ECJ upheld all four complaints the Commission argued against the implementation of the Posting Directive in Luxembourg underlining its narrow understanding of the Posting Directive providing only for a limited scope to secure labour standards while firstly securing the internal market goals.

“Again, as done in the cases Laval and Rüffert the ECJ did not recognize the political core right of a member state to define which of its social policy measures are considered so important that they should apply to all its national service providers, and therefore as well to cross boarder service providers to counter unfair competition. Apart from challenging the member states labour market policies the ECJ judgement challenges the intention of the Council when drafting the Posting Directive meant to be an instrument to secure national working conditions instead of discarding them.

Confronted with the Irish ´no´ to the Lisbon Treaty the EU can no longer afford to ignore its workers and citizens demands for a broader social aspect in its policies. As a first step the CESI urges the European legislators to revise the Posting Directive to clarify and preserve its original meaning.” Helmut Müllers, CESI General Secretary

CESI is the mouthpiece for eight million workers in the public and private sector. Founded in 1955 as a European umbrella organisation bringing together independent and free trade unions with affiliates in more than 20 European Union Member States, it is recognised by the European Commission as a social partner.