Rules for road hauliers suit the west. The Czech Republic has the last chance changing this15/2/2018|Press releasesOwners of transportation companies are eagerly awaiting the result of negotiations about a revision of the European directive on sending workers abroad, which the western part of the EU understood as protection of their internal markets. The Czech Republic has the last chance influencing the decision whether the new rules will also apply to the transportation sector. If the transportation sector remains in the directive, then the red tape and wage conditions will ruin Czech hauliers. "We must join our forces and defend Czech interests together in the EU Council and in the European Parliament", the transport miniter Dan Ťok and Martina Dlabajová, the European MEP and the shadow reporter of the ALDE fraction, who is attending the three-party negotiation between the Commission, the Council and the European Parliament, agree. "The long disputes on social dumping and protectionist policies which divide the EU in two camps must stop. The Czech Republic will continue acting in a constructive way and seek a dialogue with the western countries to find a compromise that is acceptable for everybody," adds minister Ťok. If these efforts of western Europe are not stopped in the weeks to come, the competitiveness of Czech businesses on the European market will be negatively affected. The case of the Czech driver, who enforced the topping-up of his salary to reach the local level in Germany, can be the precedence for other lawsuits. "The wage structure in the Czech Republic is a multi-item structure, which was not taken into account in Germany at all," Dlabajová points out the uncomparable conditions. She believes that mass lawsuits or pressure by the trade unions may even affect big industrial enterprises that are ordering transportation to abroad. The whole Czech economy can be affected. During last year's preventive control measure of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs and the Ministry of Transportation on the border crossings of Rozvadov and Hatě, it was found that while drivers from new EU member states usually have their labour agreement available in several European languages, drivers from western states often do not have even the basic information on obligations applying if sent abroad. The European MEP Martina Dlabajová, member of the Board for Employment and Social Matters of the Transportation Committee, prepared several specific change proposals for exempting the transportation sector from the area of application of the directive on sending workers abroad. Last week in Brussels she closed her 6th challenging round of talks in a trialogue, the outcome of which raised concerns among Czech hauliers. "The wording of the text has come closer to the needs of western countries, particularly France, during the last two years. There is no will whatsoever on the side to accept special terms for the transportation sector. This would exempt the transportation sector from the directive, the rules of which were originally set for the construction sector," says the European MEP Dlabajová. She adds that these countries only seek protection of their own markets from cheap competition from central and eastern Europe.