An attempt by the European Commission to revise the contentious Posted Workers directive is likely to fail, as the national parliaments of at least ten member states from Central and Eastern Europe are reported have used a yellow card to stop the legislation.

On 8 March, the European Commission proposed a review of the Posted Workers Directive, which regulates people employed in one member state, but are sent to temporarily work in another.

The new proposal intends to redress so-called ‘social dumping’, where European companies use low-cost workers to circumvent the labour laws of the host country.

The revision of the 1996 EU law has sparked controversy in the past, as the 28-country bloc struggles to reconcile the freedom to offer cross-border services, a cornerstone of the internal market, with clearas they see it as a threat to their competitive advantage of being able to pay lower wages.

More than ten national parliaments are reported to have made use of the so-called “Subsidiarity Control Mechanism” introduced by the Lisbon Treaty, according to which one third of the votes assigned to national parliaments require the European Commission to review its proposal.

Two votes are assigned to each national parliament. In the case of a bicameral parliamentary system, each of the two chambers has one vote. The total number of votes is at present 56 (twice the number of member states).

The parliaments, reported to be new EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, have used the yellow card. The Commission said that the deadline for the national parliaments to submit a reasoned