Conflictenrecht en arbeid in het Europees wegtransport verder en verder weg van het Savigniaanse verwijzingsmodel

The protection of workers in situations involving cross-border mobility has been a contentious issue within the EU international market for a long time. In this contribution we focus on recent developments as these impact the employment conditions of workers in international road transport in the EU/EEA. The starting point is Directive 2018/857 as it amends the Posting of Workers Directive of 1996. Hungary and Poland had approached the CJEU in a (failed) attempt to have Directive 2018/857 declared null and void, inter alia for being incompatible with the Rome I Regulation – see cases C-620/18 (Hungary) and C-626/18 (Poland). The special position of workers in the road haulage industry is highlighted by the special Directive on Posting Drivers in the Road Transport Sector (Directive 2020/1057) and the judgement of the CJEU in the case of FNV v. Van den Bosch (case C-815/18). All these developments are outlined here in order to assess their impact on social competition as well as their interaction with the system of private international law.