From Competing to Aligned Narratives on Posted and Other Mobile Workers within the EU?

The Treaty provisions on the free movement of workers provide rights to workers to move to, and accept work in other Member States, and to be treated as equal to ‘national workers’. The enabling aspects of these provisions offer people a feeling of what it means to be an EU worker and allows them to determine freely how they are going to make a living. Clearly, the narrative of free movement of workers prevents that the focus is on the needs of the employer alone. In contrast, the posting of workers falls under the heading of EU free movement of services, and puts workers in a position of commodities or ‘tools’ with which service providers may provide their services in another Member State. It induces a narrative that puts the focus first and foremost on the economic interests of the employers, in their positions as temporary cross-border service providers. Focusing on the position of mobile workers in particular in low-wage sectors, this chapter sketches and juxtaposes the respective historical evolution of the narratives on posted and ‘migrant’ EU workers, while displaying their differing legal impact on workers’ rights. This is accompanied by a look into the most recent developments in the posting of workers saga. What we assess is whether the pending proposal for ‘targeted revision’ of the Posted Workers Directive (PWD) substantially diminishes the differences between the two narratives. Does it broaden its perspective to the needs of workers next to those of employers? How would that relate to the framing that posted workers do not enter the labour market of the host state?