Con3Post: Posting of Third Country Nationals. Mapping the Trend in the Construction Sector

Con3Post explores a persistent and under-researched trend of recruiting and posting of third-country nationals to work in the construction sector within the single European labour market. It seeks to produce new knowledge on the phenomenon, encourage transnational cooperation and exchange of information between key stakeholders in the EU and third countries, and increase access to information. Con3Post will innovatively contribute to a better understanding of challenges in the field of posting of third-country nationals by:

• producing new knowledge on a phenomenon that has not yet been thoroughly researched by collecting and analysing primary data
• conducting comparative research that allows for the exploration of regional differences and looks at the phenomenon of the recruiting and posting of workers from the perspective of all involved countries
• developing multi-stakeholder recommendations based on empirical findings
• utilizing a forward-looking approach by developing future scenarios
• sharing information and establishing transnational cooperation with a lasting impact.

Con3Post brings together experts and stakeholders from 6 EU Member States: Slovenia, Austria, Italy, Finland, Estonia and Belgium, and several third countries in the EU neighbourhood, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Morocco and Ukraine, to organise forums of exchange of knowledge and information. The participating countries were carefully selected to represent the EU Member States that are recruiting and posting workers further, EU states that are receiving posted workers who are third-country nationals and Third Countries from which workers are recruited. Con3Post is focusing on recruitment from the countries of the Western Balkans, Northern Africa and non-EU Eastern Europe.

Associated partners:

• European Federation of Building and Woodworkers (Belgium)
• Federal Public Service for Employment, Labour and Social Dialogue (Belgium)
• Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (Slovenia)
• Regional State Administrative Agency for Southwestern Finland (Finland)
• Ukrainian Workers’ Trade Union (Poland)
• Labour Inspectorate of Estonia (Estonia)
• Ispettorato Territoriale del Lavoro di Venezia (Italy)
• FILLEA CGIL (Italy)
• CGIL (Italy)
• UNDOK – The Trade Union Advice Centre for Undocumented Workers (Austria)
• ETUI - European Trade Union Institute (Belgium), Association for Legal Intervention (Poland)

Main deliverables:

• Nine multi-stakeholder, two-day joint visit events (seminars, focus group discussions and foresight workshops)
• Three research seminars to discuss the data collection and analysis across the chosen regions (Western Balkans – Slovenia – Austria; Northern Africa – Italy – Belgium; non-EU Eastern Europe – Poland – Finland)
• Four newsletters published in nine languages
• Three regional case study reports
• Three regional policy briefs
• Comparative report with multi-stakeholder recommendations
• Final transnational conference in Brussels, Belgium in 2020