"Interoperable" information
ELA Programme 2023
MB – 08/2023
In
its Annual
Programme for 2023 - 2025, the European
Labour Authority (ELA) is pursuing various strategic goals that are also of
major importance for the German social insurance system as far as the free
movement and posting of workers and the related information services are
concerned.
In its Programme
for 2023, the ELA has further specified its ideas on posting of workers and
their free movement. An important approach here is to offer a coherent range of
information at European and national level on specific issues and to create a
cooperation framework so that "interoperable" information is
ultimately available.
Posting of construction workers
In 2023, the ELA will focus on the posting
of workers in the construction sector. In this context, the authority looks at
how the individual Member States proceed in their communication on a purely
national level and which offers are worth imitating. The ELA is also running an
information and awareness campaign on this and has recently put a factsheet on the rights and obligations for
posted workers from the construction sector online.
In Germany, there are already a wide
variety of information services:
With the EU Equal Treatment Authority, the
Federal Government has created a central institution for foreign workers in
Germany that provides general comprehensive
information for posted workers in many languages. It also deals explicitly
with social
security aspects and in particular health insurance . The health and pension
insurance companies also offer information, but this is not specifically
tailored to the construction sector.
On the part of the social partners, the
trade unions have a very good information and counselling offer with "Fair Mobility" - not only for the construction sector.
The Employer's Liability Insurance
Association for the Construction Industry provides foreign
employers with information both for posting
from Germany and vice versa.
Free movement & seasonal work
The issue of "seasonal work" is
also an important point for the ELA, as many Europeans work temporarily in
another country especially in the agricultural sector. One German project in
particular received an award from the authority, which involved cooperation
between different agencies regarding information and support for Moldovan
seasonal workers .
Various German agencies also offer a wide
range of information on this topic. The EU equal opportunities body has a wide
range of information on seasonal work on its website and already refers to
agricultural accident insurance in the event of an accident at work.
The Social Insurance for Agriculture,
Forestry and Horticulture (SVLFG) not only offers German employers
comprehensive information on seasonal work, but also has a multilingual app
for foreign workers.
Conclusion:
At European level, "Your Europe" is
the information portal (Single Digital Gateway / SDG) to provide mobile
citizens with basic information on European law. From there, they can obtain
targeted information on the country of employment via the national portals of
the individual Member States, as the above-mentioned sources of the German
(social) institutions show.
In order to meet the objective of
Regulation (EU) No. 2018/1724 on the establishment of a single digital gateway (SDG), the ELA should
cooperate closely with the portal and provide any information directly in the
SDG. Where particular attention needs to
be paid to individual issues, closer cooperation with Member States would be
desirable. Common information services could then be made available via the SDG
and the national portals.