As workers at the Lindsey Oil Refinery continue to brave the freezing conditions, the debate over foreign workers and ‘British jobs’ rages on. An initial compromise deal has been rejected and tensions are high. But despite what members of the BNP and other right-wing elements would have you believe, the truth is that this protest isn’t a xenophobic one.
This is about the exploitation of workers, through what looks to me like an abuse of a piece of EU law called the Posted Workers Directive. Recent court rulings have seen the Directive used to allow contractors to pay foreign workers the minimum wage only - not the going rate for skilled workers in Britain. In an economy obsessed with remaining ‘competitive’, employers are being permitted under EU law to push down the wages and reduce the union rights of continental workers, creating a pool of low wage and disadvantaged labour.
Today I am helping to launch a Written Declaration with four colleagues here in the Parliament which directly addresses the true root of this problem. The Declaration, like an Early Day Motion in the House of Commons, will need to be signed by over 50% of MEPs before it becomes the official position of the Parliament - to which the Commission must then respond.
It calls on Member States to:
- resist racist calls to blame "foreign workers" for employment disputes. They are the victims of free market competition - not the perpetrators
- commit themselves to amending the Posted Workers Directive, so that its original intention - to provide equal treatment for all workers - is restored
It also asks MEPs to:
- insist that the incoming Commission commits itself to revise the Posted Worker Directive, as indicated above
- commit to vote against any New Commission President or Commission that does not commit itself to such an urgent revision
The Commission has so far resisted any call to revisit the Posted Workers Directive, and the UK government has been equally nonchalant. But the Greens are now calling for a review so that the rights of all workers, from the UK and other EU countries, are protected and made equal.
