Trade unionists from all over Europe are
gathering in Strasbourg in February to demonstrate against
Brussels' plan to undermine minimum wage and health and safety laws
in Britain.
The threat comes from the controversial
Services Directive, which would allow workers from other European
countries to work in Britain on wages and safety levels they would
get in their home country.
This is the opposite to offshoring where work
is moved to low wage areas. This directive, as currently
worded, would result in bringing low paid workers to the work in
the UK.
No one would argue that what Europe needs is
quality services, but not to the detriment of millions of
hard-working people. The Services Directive is Europe's
attempt to open up different services to competition. Unite is
not alone in believing the draft law will be very harmful if
adopted in its current form, which is why we're campaigning for
changes to be made.
For a start, the European Commission's idea
of what should be covered isn't clear and includes all-encompassing
definitions.
Their plan is to treat commercial activities like tourism and
advertising in the same way as services which define our quality of
life. We're talking about services that supply things people
can't do without. Real services like health care, postal
services, water and energy supply, social services, environmental
and waste management. It just won't work putting commercial
activities and essential services (services of general interest or
SGI) under the same legal umbrella.
The Commission wants to free-up trade in all
of these services so that there can be a single market place, free
from so-called "barriers" between different countries in the
EU. Sound familiar? According to the Commission these
"barriers" include any measure that makes it more difficult or more
costly for one Member State to operate in another, including such
things as "red tape" and onerous tax regulations.
At the moment workers are bound by national
minimums. But, in its current format the draft says that
service providers will only be subject to the laws and conditions
applying in the country where they are based, rather than those of
the country where they provide the service (the so-called "country
of origin principle"). Therefore, there's nothing to stop
organisations relocating to member states with lower standards,
leading to a downward spiral in working conditions.
The dangers posed by the current draft have
already been demonstrated by the "Vaxholm" case in Sweden, where
workers engaged by a Latvian construction company to build a
school were employed on much poorer wages and working conditions
than their Swedish counterparts.
You might think that in the newer member
states the trade unions would be clapping their hands to get the
work, but not so – they are just as opposed to the law as it stands
as we are, since it will do nothing to raise wages and working
conditions in these countries to meet EU average levels.
By their very nature, service industries
employ a high concentration of workers. As a result, any
attempts to liberalise the market place in these industries will
inevitably have a knock-on effect on employment conditions for
millions of workers. That's why it's so important for Unite, and
other trade unions to try and find a workable solution.
Above all else, any new regulations must not
interfere with worker's rights already set in labour law,
industrial relations and collective agreements. The development of
an internal market must go hand in hand with improved social
protection and proper workers' rights and working conditions.
Otherwise the social level playing field that all trade unionists
are striving to achieve will fall by the wayside. People living and
working in Europe want a Europe that works for them and improves
their quality of life.
Central to what Unite is calling
for:
- Fair working conditions and equal treatment
for workers to go hand in hand with any measures to promote an
internal market for services.
- Services to be regulated by the laws of the
country where they are carried out or provided, including health
and safety regulations (of glaring importance to sectors like
construction). The country of origin principle should be
deleted from the Directive.
- Exclusion from the Directive of all Services
of General Interest, economic or non-economic, including health,
welfare services and social care, education and prison
services.
- Labour law, including collective bargaining
arrangements at a national, regional and enterprise level should be
excluded from the scope of the Directive.
- Provisions relating to the Posting of Workers
Directive should be excluded from the Services Directive.
- The agency sector should be excluded from the
Directive and a Temporary Agency Worker Directive should be adopted
as a matter of urgency.
- The Services Directive would threaten recently
adopted UK legislation on Gangmasters and must be amended to leave
this legislation intact.
