FREE movement across the European single market has allowed lorry firms to exploit workers, transport union RMT said yesterday.

The union’s comments came after a BBC investigation found that drivers for Ikea and other firms in western Europe were living out of their cabs for months at a time and being paid as little as £3 an hour. One driver said he felt “like a prisoner” in his truck.

Under EU rules drivers posted abroad should be guaranteed the host nation’s rates of pay and conditions, but companies exploit legal loopholes to pay less — and the EU has taken action to prevent Germany from ensuring lorry drivers on its land are paid its minimum wage.

Drivers from countries including Moldova and Slovakia, some of whom are employed via contractors for Ikea deliveries, said they ate and cooked meals at the roadside and had no access to toilets or running water.

A Romanian driver posted to Denmark said he took home a monthly pay packet of £420. A Danish driver could expect to earn £1,900 a month.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “Any EU legislation that allegedly prevents social dumping is just window dressing and is being ignored with impunity.

“It is glaringly obvious that there are no controls in place, or sanctions against companies that actively encourage social dumping on an industrial scale, in a relentless drive to the bottom in the pursuit of corporate profits.”

Lorry drivers working for Aldi and Lidl have accused bosses of making them unload their own trucks — a job normally done by warehouse staff.

“The only reason you were doing it was for the benefit of whichever discount supermarket it was that you were visiting,” lorry driver David Janczak-Hogarth told the BBC’s You and Yours programme.

Aldi said hauliers “support this process as it saves them time and money.”