Our regular contributor Milena Dimitrova this time talks to a Bulgarian lawyer defending Bulgarian posted workers in France, who is shedding light on amazing gaps in EU legislation, exploited by unscrupulous employers, the victims of which are normal EU citizens.
Irina Vernet: “I’m not an economic emigrant. I met my husband in my line of work. I fell in love and I followed the man who could not leave his job.
I know that I will come back to Bulgaria when we retire. We are already discussing retirement. Abroad, we do not have our own home, despite the fact that salaries in the West are more generous. We told each other, when the time will come, we will return. At this stage this is just discussions, it’s still too early for us to retire.
I personally do not have the prospect of being a pensioner in Paris because here almost two-thirds of our income will go for the rent. That is why with my husband we think about returning to Bulgaria.
In fact, I have come back, partially. As a Bulgarian lawyer, I am sharing my life and my profession between France and Bulgaria. Four years ago, I took this step. Before that, in my capacity of legal adviser to the “Mission Bulgaria” association, we have always advised Bulgarians and helped them when they needed to be advised in France, not knowing the language or when they were getting involved in complicated relations with the authorities. It became clear to me that only a legal counsel was not enough.
Lately, cases of workers being abused by their employers abroad have increased. After working in other countries as posted workers, they often realise that they have been trapped. And President Macron wants changes on this issue, he mainly speaks about social dumping. Our compatriots are starting to look for the money they have been promised to obtain, and if they decide to sue, they are often been waiting for years a reply from the French justice. They are looking for someone to help, and this is how they often come to me personally for my services as a lawyer.
I often advise them often to turn to the Bulgarian justice system if they go to court, which is faster, and if they wonder if they should bring the case in France or Bulgaria. I’m absolutely serious about it. Compare the population – France has several dozens of millions in population, it is rather unusual for Bulgarians to seek their rights through the French judicial system and some cases are drag on for 4-5 years. In addition, French justice also provides for a conciliation procedure, and it is obligatory for the worker to meet with the employer and both sides to try to improve their relations.
But how will the person, who is cheated abroad, re-allocate another 300 euros to go to a conciliation procedure? Even more if the person has been cheated, not paid, and got itself in a conflict?
Plus, in France, it has become common place that companies disappear.
One of our compatriots was a subcontractor of a French firm, he did his work under the contract, returned to Bulgaria and waited for a month, two months, then a whole year, to get his money. He rang several times to ask what was going on. They pacified him, advising him to call in two or three months. When he turned to me for advice, the French company turned out to be bankrupt. I was sorry I had to tell him that nothing can be done anymore. The man lost 65,000 euros.
If I start talking about cheated workers in France I can go on not for hours, but for days, I know so many cases! It’s a pity that there are inspection bodies that are well aware of the problems, but cannot initiate changes in the legislation. Ombudsman Maya Manolova introduced some improvements for workers in Bulgaria, it should be not only at national, but at European level that labor law should be changed.
There is a need for European, not just national guarantee funds for business-to-business relationships. There are problems with posted workers. People should be assured that even if the employer disappears, their due wages are guaranteed.
Is it unclear to me why when a worker goes from Bulgaria to work in France or elsewhere, no trace is left in his records? Bulgaria’s National agency for income (NAP) only registers the contracts, but does not control their execution. The tracking is important for both provisioning and pensions, but it turns out that no authority reports such information.
I recently had such a case, and the contract was inspected by the Labor Inspectorate. The man had not moved from Sweden for six months. He was contracted by a Bulgarian company, which, from day one, sent him to work to an entity under a Swedish company. They had to post him for more than a month, not up to 29 days, because there are serious differences under the labor law. As soon as the complaint was filed, the Labor Inspectorate examined only our papers. And no information was requested from the authorities in the other country, to check the Swedish company. They advised him to turn to the court. But how the court could judge where the man was working, as according to the documents he had served in Bulgaria? How will it prove that this Bulgarian national had worked in the Swedish enterprise for over six months?
And there are phantom companies in Europe, even more than in Bulgaria.
I recently attended a conference on the European Pillar of Social Rights and I said that the problem is not about social dumping coming from Eastern Europe. Dumping starts from Western Europe and infects the East too! Dumping and other offenses are generated by advice from Western employers. We also copy bad examples. Bulgaria has no workforce in construction. People rightfully compare the wages for each job – how much they pay in different countries in Europe and how many – in Bulgaria. They want to get as much money in Bulgaria as in the West, but there is no one to guarantee it.
Check out what’s happening in the hotel industry, in tourism. People go for 4-5 months abroad, they save, and when they return to Bulgaria, they bring money which helps their families survive for a full year.
One female client told me she used to work in Bulgaria what is considered a male job for 20 leva a day. She was cutting down the vineyards, her hands were all callous. But in France for one hour she will take the same amount, 10 euros, and at the end of the day he will leave with 70 euros. With deductions from insurance, contributions, it goes on to return with more than 100 leva each day. At least five times more!
I’m talking mainly about France because I know the practice here. I know large transport companies that hire our drivers.
The Bulgarian driver already takes almost as much as the French driver, but he is getting skewed not only through finance. Bulgarians working abroad are deprived of the opportunity to live their normal lives. The boss sends him to work with a photocopy of the papers, he doesn’t give him the originals. The driver knows that the originals are being checked on the road and he wants them, but the boss threatens him: “Go away if you have an opinion!” And there is no one to protect him. In freight forwarding, I have also encountered huge violations and late payments. The contract of a Danish firm, for example, says the worker will be paid on the 48th day of the following month. And if something happens, the money has been earned, but it’s held. You have to fight fierce battles to defend yourself in a country where you do not know the language, the order or the law. Who can use upfront between two and five thousand euros to complain in court? I was in charge of such a case, and the client had nothing to cover for it.
Bulgarians are unprotected abroad. I am currently working on shocking cases and I would like these Bulgarians to be assisted. The state requires agencies sending workers to other countries to take out insurances but does not control how these insurance companies work. For a year and a half I have tried to convict one such insurance company to fulfill its obligations. We wrote to state financial control, and what do you think? From there, they also complained that the insurers did not comply with them. Why then does their chief receive a salary of over 13,000 leva?
Our people are not protected. What prevents Bulgaria from initiating, under the Bulgarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, a labour legislation which would work for the Bulgarians as well as it works for the Spaniards and the Portuguese?
When a company sends workers abroad, it must pay a certain amount to a guarantee fund. The logic is that if tomorrow the posted worker cries foul that he has been cheated, the guarantee fund would compensate him. So any company that is in this business will be transparent and correct. However, It takes political will, and this will is lacking, I have talked with both employers and trade unions.
Would it be possible, that in the framework of the Presidency, changes in European labor law be initiated? I’m sure it is possible. I am also convinced that the problems of social dumping could be solved easily by setting a threshold for social contributions in the country of origin of the worker.
Social contributions can be set in the insurance sector – not in nominal terms but in percentages, which will be beneficial for both pension and health insurance. Then it will not matter whether the rate will be 10 euro per hour or 10 leva per day, because the insurance will be standardised for the whole European Union, however varying the remuneration on national and European scale.
I give a frequent example of what I’m saying to you on mobile phones. One is in France with a minimum wage of 1500 euros to buy a mobile phone and a free-to-limit tariff with the whole world. Another is in Bulgaria at 510 leva minimum wage to pay for the same shiny toy and find an equally lucrative plan from a supplier. These percentages, this ratio between wages and the shopping cart is the key to labor-law problems in Europe.
Another dramatic example is transport workers, for which a separate directive is now being made. The transport workers have been excluded from the new directive on posted workers, because France, Belgium and Italy want drivers not to sleep in the truck cabin. I agree it’s not human. Most of my clients are workers. What, however, is the case? On the one hand, it is good to ask people to rest in normal conditions, but on the other hand, have these countries provided normal, predictable and accessible conditions for all? If a Frenchman is fined and he pays his fine to the 30th day, the amount of the fine is reduced by 20%. However, this applies only to the French, and not to the foreigners working in France.
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