The European Commission is pushing legislation to support startup companies that would allow firms to apply the employment conditions of their home country to workers based abroad, Cyprus Workers’ Confederation (SEK) Secretary General Andreas Matsas warned.
Matsas, speaking to Phileleftheros after a two-day meeting of the ETUC Executive Committee in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday, described the proposal as deeply concerning and said it must be blocked before it goes to a vote. He said it would upset the balance of employment conditions for workers and contradicts the EU’s own push to expand collective bargaining agreements.
Under the proposed legislation, Matsas explained, a company registered in Cyprus but operating in Spain would hire workers in Spain under Cypriot employment terms rather than Spanish ones. He said this would disrupt labour relations, create problems for collective bargaining agreements, and affect pension entitlements.
Bolkestein echoes
Matsas said the proposal strongly recalls the Bolkestein Directive, which triggered widespread protests across Europe around 20 years ago.
Opponents of that directive used the figure of a Polish plumber working in Brussels on a Polish wage as a symbol of what they saw as the mass movement of cheap labour from eastern to more developed western EU member states.
The Bolkestein Directive aimed to create a single, open market for services by reducing bureaucracy and making it easier to set up businesses and provide services across member states.
Its controversial “country of origin” principle — under which companies could operate in another member state under the employment and tax rules of their home country — drew widespread condemnation and was characterised by many as a social step backwards.
The directive was eventually approved by the European Parliament at the end of 2006, after the provision subjecting workers, including posted workers, to the legislation of their country of origin had been removed.
Matsas told Phileleftheros he will seek a meeting with the President of the Republic as soon as possible to brief him on developments and urge him to take a position on the legislation before the European Council.
The proposal is currently under discussion in the European Parliament, with a vote expected in either 2026 or 2027.
Additional funding for workers
The ETUC Executive Committee also discussed the EU’s multiannual financial framework for 2028 to 2034.
Matsas said the framework creates conditions for greater financial support for workers in Cyprus, particularly the unemployed and vulnerable groups, and opens the door to funding for poverty reduction, social cohesion, and linking resources allocated to private businesses to conditions on employment quality and collective bargaining.
However, he said this would require the government to submit a formal request, potentially accompanied by policies setting out how the funds would be used.
The SEK Secretary General said he will include this issue in his letter to the President, describing it as a major opportunity to provide additional support to workers.
The ETUC meeting also discussed the need to advance a legislative framework on employment quality, centred on principles and priorities linked to decent working conditions, job security, and overall quality of employment.
