PURPOSE: to amend Directive 2002/15/EC on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities to enhance clarity, readability and enforceability of the current rules by providing a more precise definition of mobile workers including so called 'false' self-employed drivers.
PROPOSED ACT: Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council.
BACKGROUND: Directive 2002/15/EC became applicable on 23 March 2005. Its common rules ensure minimum social protection standards for mobile workers in the road transport sector and are perceived as an important step towards improving the health and safety protection of mobile workers in the sector.
When adopting the Directive after a conciliation procedure, Council and Parliament agreed that it should in principle apply to self-employed drivers from 23 March 2009. In addition, the Commission is requested to present a report at the latest two years before that date to the European Parliament and the Council, followed by a legislative proposal based on the report, which would either define the modalities for the inclusion or exclude the self-employed drivers from the scope of the Directive.
The Commission report concluded that there was not a decisive case for including self-employed drivers under the directive, but that it was important to address the issue of definitions and make them clear through an appropriate amendment that the notion of mobile worker covered by the directive also included the so-called 'false' self-employed drivers.
CONTENT: the proposal introduces the following modifications without changing the overall purpose of the directive, namely social protection of workers and those who are assimilated to workers under the social rules in road transport. In particular, it: