00:01Fresh efforts are on the way to help Europeans working in other EU countries to claim their rights.
00:07This worker has been working for a significant period of time in a month in Germany as a posted worker,
00:18but got paid less.
00:20They work a lot on the declaration of passengers in the entire EU.
00:26Millions of Europeans work abroad and sometimes their employers don't give them the salary and benefits that they are entitled
00:33to.
00:34So a cross-border network of experts is helping them to get what they deserve and we're here in Slovenia
00:40to see how they make it work.
00:47It's late afternoon at this rest stop on a motorway near Ljubljana and an international team from a European project
00:54called Fair Labour Mobility EU are on a leafleting campaign.
00:59They talk to drivers about their working conditions, rest time and pay.
01:03They need information, real information, because they are not aware of themselves, they don't know the rules, they don't know
01:14the rules, they don't know the rules, they are disinformation.
01:17In that sense, they need our information.
01:22That point is confirmed by Slovenian trucker Goran Jovanovic.
01:26He says many long-distance drivers have poor knowledge of work rules and practices.
01:32The biggest problem is that they don't use a tachograph.
01:36The second is that they are not paid for collective measures, as they could be,
01:41but they are paid for fixed days and they are paid for driving kilometers.
01:45That's the main problem. And they are the best used.
01:48The Fair Labour Mobility EU councillors come from eight different countries and often meet to discuss complex cross-border cases.
01:57This year their project has a budget of 1.2 million euros with 90% coming from the European Union.
02:04Project coordinator Dragan Abubal stresses the importance of meeting the foreign workers face to face wherever they are.
02:11We are going not only to the highway stations, but also to construction centers, to agricultural fields, to the places
02:21where the optic fibre cables are being laid out.
02:25The cases they investigate might involve a range of abuses, from unpaid social security contributions to work accidents, unacceptable accommodation
02:34and underpayment, often across several countries.
02:37The biggest challenges that we experience in the counselling work are definitely long subcontracting chains.
02:45And without this transnational cross-border case handling, the chances for the worker to get their wages at the end
02:54are quite minimal.
02:57The work of these Labour councillors is not happening in isolation.
03:02In parallel to this project, the European Commission is making fresh efforts to guarantee clear social rights and protection for
03:09workers across the EU.
03:10It's doing so through a proposal called the Fair Labour Mobility Package, which has three key goals.
03:17Faster recognition of qualifications across borders.
03:20A digital wallet to store and share social security documents.
03:25And a larger role for the European Labour Authority to fight fraud.
03:29One key argument from the European Commission is that strong cross-border labour rights don't just support workers, they are
03:35also good for businesses and underpin the entire EU economy.
03:39If you tackle more abuses and if you fight against fraud, have better inspections and a better cooperation between member
03:46states, you also generate more productivity, more competitiveness and you will get also more money for your treasuries.
03:54On the shores of Lake Balaton in Hungary, we meet another worker who was supported by the experts at Fair
04:00Labour Mobility EU.
04:02Gabor Gushlevan heads the Works Council at a car parts factory and faced a dispute about how lengthy cross-border
04:10journeys should be compensated.
04:11The problem was a question of the problem.
04:15The problem was a question of the problem.
04:16We try to agree with working time, travel time, travel time, and spend time together.
04:21After advice from his union and Fair Labour Mobility EU, he found a solution.
04:26The most important lesson is that we have to deal with the problems.
04:32And there are staff members who, even if there is no specific question,
04:40if there is no civil law that can be found in, then we can find solutions together.
04:45The Fair Labour Mobility EU project helped nearly 3,000 workers to claim their labour and social rights between 2024
04:54and 2025.
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