Labour 'movement' finally wake up to services directive?

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Tuesday December 06, 2005 14:35

by No to Nice campaigner

About time lads and lasses!

It's interesting that the SIPTU leadership and De Rossa who both were condescending to NO campaigners in recent referendum have awoken to the threat in light of the Irish Ferries rubicon. If it wasn't so sad we'd laugh and tell you we told you so.

EU Services Directive will accelerate race to the bottom

06 December 2005
Jack O'Connor

The Irish Ferries dispute provides a dramatic warning of the kind of onslaught we face on workers’ pay and conditions if the proposed EU Services Directive goes through in anything like its original form, SIPTU General President Jack O’Connor said when he opened a conference on the issue in Dublin this morning. The conference was organised by Labour MEP Proinsias de Rossa at the Parliament’s offices in Molesworth Street, Dublin.
Mr O’Connor said that the scale of the threat to employment standards is still not widely appreciated here, although “it is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most important issues to come before the EU Institutions in the last twenty years.
“It threatens to reverse the thrust of the entire European project which was about raising the living and employment standards of all to those of the best and most socially inclusive member states when we joined the then EEC. As it stands the Directive serves the socially divisive agenda of driving down employment standards in whole sectors of the labour force in pursuit of ‘cheapness’ rather than ‘competitiveness’.”
It was “critically important that civil society rejects the ‘law of the jungle’ and asserts the principle that in one of the richest countries in the world we don’t need our infrastructure to be built, our goods transported or our services provided by paying people slave wages”.
He added that, “The proposed Directive is designed to cover a large array of services, from architects, management consultants and travel agents, to car rental companies and, more ominously, employment agencies and health care services. Its ‘country of origin’ principle would allow companies from member states with minimal labour standards to undermine those won by workers in other member states and indeed undermine companies that have hitherto provided such services by adhering to such standards.
“The Directive would also allow Irish companies to relocate operations in member states with low standards and continue to trade in the Irish market”, he said. A proposal from the European Parliament to replace the ‘country of origin’ principle with a ‘mutual recognition’ principle, obliging businesses to comply with the law in the country in which they provide the service was likely to be opposed by the Irish Government, as well as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael MEPs, going on past performance.
“Even if it was accepted and existing legislation to protect workers’ rights member states was excluded from the directive it would offer little reassurance to workers here, because most of our labour standards are determined by collective agreements.”

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Post conference report

by N2N campaigner

Tue Dec 06, 2005 17:36

Sitpu warns of EU risk to employment standards

Living and employment standards are under threat from a controversial EU directive being developed by the European Commission, Siptu general president Jack O'Connor warned today.
Mr O'Connor, who leads a union locked in a bitter dispute with Irish Ferries over its plan to re-flag its ships and replace its seafarers with foreign labour earning less than half the Irish minimum wage, said the proposed EU Services Directive will "accelerate race to the bottom" in Irish labour standards.
"It is no exaggeration to say that it is one of the most important issues to come before the EU institutions in the last twenty years," Mr O'Connor told a conference on the issue in Dublin.
The directive is aimed at liberalising the EU's internal market for services in a range of sectors including healthcare, laboratories, construction, distribution, regulated professional services such as architects, travel agents, estate agents and - of particular concern to unions - employment agencies.
The directive forms part of the Lisbon Agenda, the policy of making the EU a knowledge-based economy by 2010, with lower consumer costs generated by increased competition through the free movement of goods and services.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons earlier this year that the directive would create at least 600,000 new jobs in the EU and add €37 billion to the economy.
Unions throughout the EU are particularly opposed to the 'country of origin' principle, which would allow a company from one member state provide services in another member state while still observing the laws of the country in which they are based.
This, unions argue, would mean companies from member states with relatively good labour standards could move to states with lower standards.
Policy-makers argue that restrictive practices and bureaucracy are preventing companies from one member state operating in another, thereby hampering competition and job creation. A particularly pronounced problem for small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Mr O'Connor said the Irish Ferries plan was "a dramatic warning of the kind of onslaught we face on workers' pay and conditions if the proposed EU Services Directive goes through in anything like its original form".
The directive undermined "the thrust of the entire European project", which, he said, was to raise living and employment standards "to those of the best and most socially inclusive member states".
He added: "As it stands the directive serves the socially divisive agenda of driving down employment standards in whole sectors of the labour force in pursuit of 'cheapness' rather than 'competitiveness'."
Consultation on the directive is still ongoing and negotiaitions among member states about resolving the many technical issues that confront its implementaiton are are being advanced by Britian, which hold the EU presidency.
Labour MEP, Prionsias De Rossa, who organised the conference, said the Commissoner for Internal Market and Services, Charlie McCreevy, should acknowledge the weaknesses in what he called the "cowboy charter".
He said the incoming Austrian presidency provided a "glimmer of hope" becuase their Labour minister Martin Bartenstein has pledged to insist on an amended directive. "Reform of our social market must happen in a way that retains solidarity as a core value and isndeed is a necessity in a globalising world," Mr De Rossa said.

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Labour 'movement' finally wake up to services directive?

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