Germany has put on hold rules requiring foreign trucking firms to pay its minimum wage to their drivers while they are on German roads, pending a European Union decision on their legality. Eastern European countries, whose firms have been able to take a big share of the international road freight business because they pay their drivers less than their Western European competitors, had protested against the rules. Germany's labour ministry said in a statement on Friday it would suspend the rules while the EU conducts an investigation into this aspect of Germany's minimum wage law, which took effect at the start of 2015. But it added it believed the rules were fully in accordance with EU law. Under the German rules, foreign firms faced the prospect of having to register drivers' employment details with German authorities if they want to move goods over German roads. The firms could have been subject to fines of more than 30,000 euros ($34,000) if they did not pay truckers using German roads the German minimum wage. Polish labour minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz welcomed the move after talks with his German counterpart Andrea Nahles. "We are pleased to note that the rules about minimum wages, and administrative obligations and the interpretations linked to these, concerning transit through the Federal Republic of Germany, have been put on hold," he said. He added that Poland and other European Union member states believed the German rules contradicted EU principles on the free movement of labour and goods. German media reported that Polish trade unions had written to Nahles urging her to uphold the minimum wage for foreign drivers. (Reuters)