The Entitlements of Hired Workers in the Light of the Law of the European Communities

Abstract

Article 39 of the Treaty that established the European Union granted and still grants the right of a free flow only for workers. Legal regulations concerning the free flow of persons who are not workers appeared relatively late, as late as the 1990s. They were addressed to the citizens of member states, those who stopped working as independent or hired workers, members of their families (a spouse, children and ascendants supported by the workers); students – citizens of EU members who have never exercised the right to migrate on the basis of other regulations of the community law and members of their families (the spouse and supported children); all other citizens of member states who have not been entitled to migrate on the basis of other regulations of the community law and members of their families (the spouse, descendants, entitled ascendants and their spouses supported by the entitled person).

The Treaty of Maastricht eventually confirmed the right of each citizen of the European Union to freely migrate and settle.

The hired workers exercise a series of entitlements over the territory of all European Union. The free migration of the hired workers include the following: exchange of job offers, a ban on discrimination when employing foreign workers, equal treatment of migration workers with the local ones as regards payment, taxation, social rights and education; facilitation in migration for the worker's family. These entitlements are supposed to help integrate the hired workers in a foreign member state, thus contributing to the implementation of the principle of free flow. The rights of the family members of the hired workers depend on some important entitlements granted to the hired workers themselves.