Amendments have to be made to the Labour law in Latvia
Directive 2014/67/EU on the enforcement of rules concerning the posting of workers came into force on June 18, 2016.
On June 18, 2016 the DIRECTIVE 2014/67/EU OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL on the enforcement of Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services and amending Regulation (EU) No 1024/2012 on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information System (‘the IMI Regulation’) (hereinafter referred to as Directive) came into force and thus had to be implemented into the Official travel and Labour laws in Latvia.
The purpose of the Directive is to guarantee a proper protection of the cross-border workers, thus ensuring a fair competition and improving the operation of internal market.
The Directive sets several guidelines in order to protect the cross-border workers, especially the workers of providing services. For example, the Directive:
- provides definitions of institutions that are involved in the information exchange and administrative cooperation;
- sets requirements for providing information to the workers and enterprises regarding the rights and duties in case of sending of an employee;
- determines rules regarding administrative cooperation between the state institutions that are competent in the field of sending of an employee;
- sets the regulation of the inspections, administrative actions and control measures that have to be carried out in member states in order to ensure the fulfilment of requirements of the Directive 96/71/EC;
- determines the rights of the worker and their protection while including also the responsibility of the employer;
- also includes the cross-border enforcement of the administrative penalties.
In addition, in order to avoid the confusion and ensure the proper protection of cross-border workers, the terms business travel, work travel, and sending of an employee have to be defined. According to the Labour law in Latvia:
- Business travel determines the place of carrying out the work tasks, not the place of employment itself. In case of the business travel the place of the employment remains the same, but the employee can travel to other country in order to fulfil some work tasks or participate in studies and raise his/her qualification. Per diem allowance in Latvia is EUR 211.
- Work travel can be attributed to the situations when the work tasks regularly have to be carried out in different places (local or abroad) or are being fulfilled during the travel or drive. Meaning that the worker does not have one place of employment. For instance, the term work travel can be used when it concerns truck drivers, aviation pilots and others who fulfil their work tasks during the drive or travel. Or employees that work in logging or construction as they regularly perform their work duties in different places.
- Sending of an employee means that also the place of employment would be changed according to the agreement made between the employer and worker. Mostly, the sending of an employee is connected with providing services. For example, the sending of an employee can be referred to the situations when the worker is being sent to another branch in a different state.
The Directive applies not only to the workers that exit the country, but also for the ones that enter. Therefore, the Directive provides the protection not only for the Latvian workers that have been sent to fulfil their work duties in other countries, but also the workers that are in their business travels in Latvia are protected.
To find out more about the labor law in Latvia or business travels in Latvia, please contact our English speaking lawyers at info@gencs.eu.
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