the nodding donkey:
I just thought, does the 90/180 rule actually apply for work, or just for visiting (I.e. holiday, or living in a second home)? Can a UK passport holder simply work in Europe, for 90 days, without a permit?
I guess you can, when you drive for a UK firm, but can a UK passport holder work for a firm in the Irish Republic?
Unless you have some sort of permit, it is 90/180. Thats it. Currently there is no mark in your (UK) passport when you enter/leave EU countries as to the reason for the visit that I have seen. As the OP mentioned if he has worked 87 days out of 180, then he isn
t going to be allowed to take a holiday there.
If someone has bought a house in an EU country then that gives them no right of abode. If they want to go beyond 90/180 then they will need some kind of permit. The rules for that are different in all individual EU countries*.
When you say “work in Europe” I think it depends exactly what you mean.
robroy:
Firms like VOS,.BET, TSA, Verhoek,.Boon, Van Der Vaal, etc, Dutch, Belgian, and French, firms,…a couple who I have worked for myself in the past in fact, who have always employed Brit drivers running their individual country’s registered trucks, …
How do, or how did the Brit drivers stand already in employment, or how did their terms change (if any terms left) after Brexit?
Looks like a mess to me.
Let`s try to leave Eire companies out of this because that is an extra layer to look at. Assuming a holder of a UK passport only.
If anyone was both living in EU and working for an EU company, pre-Brexit then they should have been able to register as a resident in whatever country they were in, and (more or less) carry on.
If anyone was living in the UK and driving a UK reg truck for a UK office of a foreign company then nowt changes. The name on the door might be European but it`s really a UK company.
A driver living in the UK, but working for a genuine EU company, and in a EU reg truck? They would (I think, I`m open to correction) be regarded as a Cross Border Worker. There are rules about income, and residency taxes, and social security payments. Lots of that around Luxembourg, and FR/D borders for sure.
I guess that any contract in existence before Brexit would continue? But I certainly do not know that.
If anyone wanted to try their hand at EU work a few years ago all they had to do was jump on a ferry, walk into a transport company anywhere in the EU and their driving licence, DCPC, was perfectly good, and although there might be a bit of admin work for the employer to do, there were no problems at all about legality. We all had the same right to work and to live in any and all EU countries as anyone else. Anyone who did that pre-Brexit should have secured all of that and be currently safe.
If that driver lost their job they should be in the system of their new country of residence. They can get a new job in their country of residence…
BUT they cannot get a job in a different EU country*. As the UK is now a 3rd country, and documents we UK passport holders have is for us in ONE EU country.
Now, post Brexit, if you want to get a job with an EU company…bloody difficult.
If a Dutch company wants to employ a driver, then they must firstly try to employ an EU driver. If after advertising in employment exchanges all over the EU, they cant find one, then they might apply to the Dutch Gov for permission to employ a 3rd country national. The Dutch Gov might well have some favoured countries to deal with. Without good reason, it looks bad for a UK driver. OK, there may be some small family companies that would take on someone "off the cards" but we aren
t talking about that here.
*To explain a bit: all EU countries look the same for all EU passport holders. But for 3rd country citizens, (UK) all EU countries are different.
Its the same with paperwork for goods> the documents to export a load to France is different to the docs for a load to Germany. The EU is there to make things easier for EU members, it isn
t there to make things easier for 3rd countries.