Concerted inspections in the road transport sector: which role for the European Labour Authority?

Abstract

The Mobility Package assigned the coordination and the support of such transnational inspections to the European Labour Authority, the European Agency aimed at ensuring that EU rules on labour mobility and social security coordination are enforced in the internal market. Such investiture is a unicum in the entire EU legislation because there is no other economic sector in which the EU imposed transnational inspection under the ELA’s coordination. An action that the ELA has recently started to put in practice with the firsts joint inspections in EU alongside its involvement in the fight of undeclared work, a phenomenon that occurs in road transport in terms of non-declaration of working status, rests or through “envelope wages” to reduce costs. The challenge for ELA is not simple due to the different nature, fragmentation and experiences of national Labour Inspectorate and to the lack of enforcement power against them in case of refusal for administrative cooperation: a problem that is neither easy to be solved even considering the sincere cooperation principle among Member States according to art. 4 TEU. The paper will start from an analysis of the road transport sector and its relevance. The analysis will be conducted starting from a definition of the problem, related to the social frauds and illegal practices experienced by drivers, and the amendments made by the Mobility package I in the EU drivers’ legislation. Lastly, the role of the European Labour Authority, its nature and competencies, will be deeply developed with regards to its involvement in the road transport sector and the outcomes of the joint inspection. A role of coordination of Labour Inspectorate that could be beneficial for ensuring the enforcement of the EU social legislation and could be an experiment that could be transposed in other sector, such as seasonal work and agriculture.