Rachid Belkacem
Fonction
Maitre de conférences
Organisation
Université de Lorraine, France
Le travail frontalier et le travail détaché dans la Grande Région : deux démonstrateurs du droit à la mobilité intra-européenne.
Le travail frontalier et le travail détaché dans la Grande Région : deux démonstrateurs du droit à la mobilité intra-européenne.
Border Region
Greater region, Saarland, Lorraine, Luxembourg, Wallonia, Rhineland-Palatinate
Language(s)
Français
Main Category
Introduction
This article analyses the effects of the Treaty of Rome to promote mobility of employees in the European area. It then focuses on two forms of mobility: Cross-border employment and secondment of employees within the greater region, SaarLorLux.
Summary
This article analyses cross-border employment and secondment of employees within the greater region, SaarLorLux. It questions the practices that have developed from these forms of mobility within this cross-border space at the contact point of 4 European countries (France, Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium). It shows that these two forms of employment mobility demonstrate the right to mobility within Europe, which is one of the most important results of European integration. In order to support this, the author has performed various activities on site, e.g. in the scope of interviews with economic and social actors in the greater region.
Content
This article takes up the results of two university research projects. The first result refers to secondment of employees within the greater region and was conducted in 2015 and 2016, on the order of the IHRES (Institute for Economic and Social Research, Paris). Seconded employees, secretaries general of trade union associations, persons responsible at the Fédération française du bâtiment [construction profession association] in Lorraine, and work inspectors were questioned about secondment practices in semi-directive interviews. The second university research project referred to a detailed analysis of the territorial, economic and social dimensions of cross-border employment. It was performed on the order of the Pôle scientifique en Sciences Sociales [Scientific pole of social sciences] of the University Lorraine in 2017. The method contains two parts: Precise examination of existing data on the subject and interviews, on the one hand with persons responsible for the two conurbations Thionville and Forbach that may have a particularly large number of cross-border commuters, and on the other hand with 15 cross-border commuters. The data were collected from the IGSS (general inspectorate for social security) in Luxembourg, the Statec, the Insee-Lorraine, the IBA and other institutions of the greater region that produce information on this subject. Surveys were also conducted among the persons responsible for the cross-border service point MOSA and the Euregio SaarLorLux. Finally, this study was based on a large scientific cooperation between the specialisations of geography and sociology at the universities in the greater region. Various types of utilisation of the results of this article took place on international congresses, in other articles and various reports that pointed out the interest of this research area. The extension of this survey deals with the economic and social influence on the development of the cross-border spaces, in particular in partnership with Rachid Belkacem (lecturer/researcher for economics at the University Lorraine) and Fabien Gille (geographer, postdoc at the University Lorraine).
Conclusions
This article shows that the greater region is a place characterised by strong inner European mobility. This takes place either via cross-border employment or secondment of employees. Every day, thousands of employees make use of their rights from the Treaty of Rome that let them freely cross the borders of the European Union. Without question, cross-border employment is a source of human, economic and social wealth for the workplaces and the places of residence alike. However, cross-border commuters also cause costs for their place of residence, in the areas of child day-care, schools, leisure activities, the infrastructure, etc. These costs are borne by the regional authorities that do not profit from the tax effects of the work, since the employees employed in Luxembourg will pay their taxes there as well. This subject causes great debate on a regional level and brings up the question of sharing the wealth acquired by the labour. Tax compensation systems are, however, present between Luxembourg and Belgium, as well as between Switzerland and France. They do not exist between France and Luxembourg, even though 80,000 people from Lorraine cross the border every day in order to work in that small and dynamic country. Regarding the secondment of employees, this article shows how the employees are stigmatised. They are held responsible for distortion of competition for national employees, even though they are not at fault at all. The secondment of employees is a consequence of existing economic effects, e.g. the local lack of specialists in some areas, such as construction or agriculture. However, there are also other seconded workers who are in the country based on illegal and fraudulent practices, and who are seconded by unscrupulous companies. These employees are not at fault either. Prejudices support isolation and increasing success of the populist parties in the 4 countries of the greater region. These parties use the fear of foreign employees. They do this even though opening themselves towards the other country would be a great opportunity for the border regions…
Lead
Benoît Scalvinoni (Docteur en Sociologie) – Université de Lorraine
Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2019
Publié dans
Revue du droit de l'Union Européenne, numéro 4, 2018