Labour will act on living standards – and Europe has a role to play

One of the strange things about being an MEP during a European election campaign is how little people want to talk about Europe on the doorstep. Jobs, the economy, the cost of living – these are the issues that keep coming up, not our membership of the European Union. And with a poll yesterday showing a 54%-37% majority in favour of staying in, there’s hardly a clamour for exit.

Yet on those key living standards issues, Europe does have a role to play, and it is Labour MEPs, together with our colleagues in the European Parliament, that have fought to protect and extend British workers’ rights such as paid leave, maternity rights and equal rights for agency workers – rights that David Cameron and Nigel Farage want to scrap.

Today, I am visiting the Airbus factory in Chester with Ed Miliband, where we will see first hand the benefits of our membership of the European Union, at its best, an example of the EU working for Britain, with workers – local and migrants – on good wages and with good employment conditions, and the plant bringing prosperity to the area and to our country.

However, not everyone is benefitting as fully from our membership and this is an area where Labour would act. Another concern during the election campaign has been the impact of immigration on jobs and working conditions, with many businesses exploiting migrants and undercutting wages, and again, it is at European level that Labour MEPs have been fighting for rights for workers, wherever they are, to fair treatment. We oppose unfair zero-hour contracts, and will stamp down on abuse by predatory bosses who use them to exploit workers and avoid paying fair wages.

Labour will ban employers from being able to require zero-hours workers to be available on the off chance that they will be needed, stop employees from being required to work exclusively for one firm if they are on a zero-hours contract, and ban the use of zero-hours contracts when employees are in practice working regular hours.

Labour MEPs have strengthened rights for agency workers to help protect living standards, but there is more to do. There is a loophole in the laws around Britain’s interpretation of the European agency rules which allows firms to avoid paying agency workers at the same rates as directly-employed staff. We will work with British business and others to stop the loophole in the Agency Workers Directive being used to undercut the pay of non-agency staff, and we will ensure Directives like the Posted Workers Directive are effective.

Immigration brings huge benefits to our country, as does our membership of the European Union – a recent study found European migrants contributed 34% more in taxes than they received in benefits, with a separate report finding households are £3,000 better off by being in the EU – but there is concern about the impact the pace of change has had here, especially about a race to the bottom in wages and working conditions.

Without universal rights and protections throughout the Single Market, guaranteed at European level and properly enforced, we will continue to see exploitation of migrant labour and the undercutting of local workers. Shutting our borders, closing ourselves off from the world, isn’t going to work, but Europe has got to change, and we will reform it.

While the Conservatives, if they win the general election, will spend the next few years banging on about membership in the run-up to a referendum, the prospect of which is already causing huge uncertainty, Labour, in Brussels and Westminster, will get on with tackling the problems outlined above. Many of these need Europe-wide action, and it is Labour MEPs who can achieve this by being engaged and involved, while the Tories stand up for the wrong people in Brussels.

Glenis Wilmott is MEP for the East Midlands and Labour’s leader in the European Parliament