Building a Social Europe (South Suffolk Liberal Democrats)

South Suffolk Liberal Democrats <southsuffolklibdems@googlemail.com>

Building a Social Europe

November 7, 2008 10:00 PM
By Andrew Duff MEP in East Anglian Daily Times
Originally published by Andrew Duff MEP

The brink of an economic recession is a good time to take difficult decisions about workers' rights. In some cases, disagreement among EU states and between employers' organisations and trades unions at the European level have held up agreement for a number of years.

In October, finally, the European Parliament settled the matter of temporary workers. In particular, how long do temps have to work before they get to benefit from the full package enjoyed by full-time employees in terms of pay, holidays, hours at work, rest periods and maternity leave? The answer is immediately - except in the case of the UK, where a 12 week probationary period will apply. This British exception was thrashed out in negotiations between the CBI and TUC, itself a rare example of a collective agreement between the 'social partners' in Britain. As the UK has more agency workers than other countries - 1.3 m out of an EU total of 3 m - the compromise was important. In addition, employment agencies will be more strictly regulated to prevent abusive practice.

The next test for the spirit of compromise concerns working time. Here, too, the British have a famous opt-out from the general EU rule that restricts working time to 48 hours per week. There will be no agreement between the social partners on this matter, making the job of EU law makers more difficult. The TUC argues that 3.3 m British workers do more than their allotted 48 hours. In theory, a worker can complain to a government agency if he or she objects to longer working hours without overtime pay: in practice, complaints harm job prospects. This makes it difficult for families to achieve a decent work-life balance, particularly for women.

Long hours do not lead to higher productivity. Not only are tired workers less productive, but labour-intensive practices do not provide employers with incentives to invest in better technology. The European Court of Justice has helped by insisting that time spent 'on call' for workers such as firemen and doctors must be included in the total hours. But Britain still lags badly behind the better labour conditions in mainland Europe.

The Court, which sits in Luxembourg, has been in the forefront of the row about how to enforce the important EU principle of the free of movement of workers to provide services anywhere in the Union without allowing wages in receiving countries from being drastically undercut. In other words, when does competition from fellow EU workers become unfair? Keen and skilled Baltic workers moving to Scandinavia in search of higher wages have caused a backlash among the Nordic trade unions. We have seen some of the same reactions in Peterborough and the Fens.

The Court's approach, with which the Liberal Democrats agree, is that collective agreements between the social partners are welcome as long as they are proportionate and are not intended to close off job opportunities from EU citizens from other member states. Workers have the right to take industrial action in defence of equal treatment and decent working conditions, but Europe's labour markets do need to become more flexible. It is unfortunate that the Treaty of Lisbon, which helps to clarify where the fundamental right to seek work applies to EU labour law, is stalled as a result of the Irish referendum.

Andrew Duff is the Liberal Democrat Euro MP for the east of England and leads the UK Lib Dems in the European Parliament. www.andrewduff.eu