After ACAS, how we can avoid more Lindseys and put working people first – across the EU

By Derek Simpson

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 wages 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 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 over turn the ECJ decisions in favour of a Posted Workers Directive with that protects ambient wage rates. The PWD 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 it 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, are 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 there 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.

Election Notice:

Mr Derek Simpson is one of four candidates for Unite-Amicus election of joint General Secretary. He is the incumbent.

The other candidates are:

Kevin Coyne

Jerry Hicks

Paul Reuter