Acas inquiry into the recent unofficial action:"The law wasn't
broken the law was wrong"
Responding to the ACAS inquiry into the recent unofficial action
at Lindsey oil refinery, Unite's joint general secretary Derek
Simpson said: "The law wasn't broken the law was wrong.
"Unless European governments start to put working people first
with protective legislation that applies across the whole of the
EU, then protests like the ones we have seen in the construction
industry will go on until they do."
Writing in a blog on Derek Draper's Labour List, Mr Simpson
said: "At the root of the problem is that European employment law
as interpreted by successive UK governments has provided little
protection for UK workers from social dumping.
"The campaign for fair access to jobs for British workers in the
construction industry has nothing to do with the exclusion of other
EU nationals from work in Britain. It is in fact about protecting
people working in Britain from exploitation regardless of where
they come from. It is a class issue not a race issue.
"A short term solution to this situation is for the government
to insist on corporate social responsibility clauses in all
contracts on major infrastructure projects. This method is
currently employed in France where Alstom, one of the companies at
the centre of the dispute, are required to give consideration to
local labour on all of its building projects."
ENDS
Contact: Ciaran Naidoo on 07768 931 315
Notes to editors: The following comment from Derek Simpson,
joint general secretary of Unite has been posted on Derek Draper's
Labour List.
The campaign for fair access to jobs for British workers in the
construction industry has nothing to do with the exclusion of other
EU nationals from work in Britain. It is in fact about protecting
people working in Britain from exploitation regardless of where
they come from. It is a class issue not a race issue.
The Acas inquiry has found that Total had not broken any law at
the Lindsey oil refinery and that's the point. The law wasn't
broken the law was wrong. At the root of the problem is that
European employment law as interpreted by successive UK governments
has provided little protections for UK workers from social
dumping. It has come in the form of the outsourcing of
manufacturing and finance jobs to low wage economies or through the
importation of migrant labour prepared to do all manner of jobs for
minimum wages.
The second of these has tended not to affect organised skilled
workers until now - and not because of rising unemployment or the
credit crunch, the engineering construction industry is booming. It
is because of EU employment law as it has been interpreted by the
European Court of Justice. Three recent judgements have in effect
made collective bargaining in the UK obsolete. The rulings
enable service providers to obtain contracts in one EU state and
bring a workforce from another and pay those staff at rates below
those agreed with local trade unions. Which doesn’t sound
like anything new but here’s the rub. The local unions cannot
take action against the employer to protect the nationally agreed
pay rates because it would be illegal.
The long term effect of this interpretation of the law will be
to drive wage levels down across the whole of Europe to the lowest
levels of EU accession states. The immediate effect is to
deny local workers in northern European countries access to
jobs.
The solution to this issue is for the EU Commission to overturn the
ECJ decisions in favour of a posted workers directive with that
protects ambient wage rates. The posted workers directive as
applied in the UK at the moment only protects the minimum
wage.
Agreement for this action will take time and diplomacy. The
accession states and those of the southern EU are enjoying a short
term gain from access to work in the other EU economies. Of course
the UK government is reluctant to let go of its ideological
commitment to neo liberal economics and is still ducking the
issue.
A short term solution to this situation is for the government to
insist on corporate social responsibilities clauses in all
contracts on major infrastructure projects. This method is
currently employed in France where Alstom, one of the companies at
the centre of the dispute, is required to give consideration to
local labour on all of its building projects.
This is the kind of approach we need across the board in every
industry. The alternative will result in a continued drive
down to the lowest standards in pay and conditions in Europe. This
trend had been hidden whilst we experienced a relatively benign
economic environment but now working people across the continent
have woken up to find their political masters have been working to
undermine them to benefit the rich and powerful.
Working people are not in the mood to accept this situation any
longer. So unless European governments start to put working people
first with protective legislation that applies across the whole of
the EU then protests like the ones we have seen here in the
construction industry will go on until they do.
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