Subcontracting rules allow firms to bypass EU labour rights

Last April, around 60 drivers of Uzbek and Georgian origin protested for over a month at a motorway rest area near the German city of Frankfurt.

Their Polish employer failed to provide them with minimum working conditions and had not paid their wages for weeks.

This transport group was a subcontractor within the supply chain of large multinationals such as Volkswagen.

On a larger scale, during the summer of 20...