Austrian Act on posting of workers is a burden on companies

The new regulation on the posting of workers to Austria meets a lack of understanding by the affected coach and logistics companies in Swabia. This was announced by the ICCs of Ulm and Swabia and the logistics cluster Swabia (LCS) in a joint press release.

“This regulation means jet another administrative burden on cross-border transport,” claims René Mick, Chairman of the LCS.We have to register each driver and each journey in advance, and they have to carry the documents. ” Also passenger transport, for example skiing day trips, were affected, says Josef Brandner, Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Logistics ICC Swabia.

The background is the new act on wage and social dumping, which entered into force on 1 January. The act is aimed to ensure that foreign workers in Austria do not infringe the local minimum wage law. “The goal may be justified, but not the effort for the entrepreneurs,” said René Mick and Josef Brandner. ” “We all benefit from global trade, which requires cross-border traffic. Individual countries setting up barriers in Europe, does not fit a united Europe,” adds Harald Seifert, Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Logistics of the ICC Ulm. “This raises the question whether small orders still pay,” emphasise the three entrepreneurs.

In everyday practice, the new regulation means additional difficulties for German companies. “Since orders usually come on very short notice, for standard products mostly for the following day, a correct application of the driver is not possible. Thus, we are no longer able to accept such orders,” says Dieter Lämmle, Lämmle Industriepack in Rot an der Rot. His company is also declining packing orders in Austria. The organisational effort was simply too big.

Michael Nuber, owner of the Nuber forwarding company in Augsburg, has also expressed a lack of appreciation of the new regulation: His trucks will no longer be driving to Austria. “Those who adhere to the law, must now pay the price for the black sheep of the industry,” said Michael Nuber.

“Flexibility, which is required for the management of short term transports, is now completely lost,” complains Gianluca Crestani, CEO of Andreas Schmid Logistik AG. The additional paperwork for each load to Austria was becoming “grotesque”. “Per order, this means a minimum time effort of 20 minutes for the documents. In times of paperless transport processes, this is an unbelievable step back to the Stone Age. ”

Following protests, the Austrian Ministry of Social Affairs announced a simplification of the registration procedure for the second half of the year 2017; however its form is still unclear. Until then, the current reporting regulations will apply. That means concretely: Transports to Austria will become more expensive and must be planned and commissioned much earlier by the parties involved in the transport.

www.logistik-schwaben.de; www.ulm.ihk24.de

 

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