MaxedOutMama
Saturday, April 16, 2005
EU Gears Up For Labor Battle
A proposal is afoot to modify the services directive to make the local laws dominate instead of the laws of the country of origin. It has been floated by Evelyne Gebhardt, a German socialist MEP (Member European Parliament):
Now the latest edition of FAZ Weekly contains an article discussing Schroeder's initiative to impose a minimum wage in Germany. Schroeder is blaming the enlarged 25 member EU and the business freedom rules for the growth of unemployment. He said he wants to "return law and order to the business market":
Mrs Gebhardt proposes to scrap the disputed 'country of origin' principle and replace it with so-called mutual recognition.and:
"Operating under the principle of mutual recognition, it is the rules in the country where the service is consumed that must be followed", she explained.
"Services must be traded across borders without member states beeing able to obstruct [them]", the conservative MEP Malcom Harbour said. "In fact Mrs Gebhardt might make it more difficult", he added.The services directive in its original form is one of the major forces behind the strong and growing French opposition to ratifying the EU Constitution. Another article covering the proposal provides more details:
Ms Gebhardt said: "I am definitely in favour of opening the market for services, but we must ensure high social standards and consumer protection." She said that both the Socialist and Green groups in parliament supported her stance. She proposes to scrap a provision that would have allowed companies and individuals to provide services across the 25-nation bloc provided they comply with the rules of their home country.This article also carries a brief note saying that it is reported that electricians have cut power in France to Frits Bolkestein's home. He was the author of the original services directive.
It would now be up to the countries in which the service is provided to supervise the service provider. Ms Gebhardt also makes clear that service providers would have to comply with the host country's rules on contracts, consumer protection, environmental protection and labour law.
Now the latest edition of FAZ Weekly contains an article discussing Schroeder's initiative to impose a minimum wage in Germany. Schroeder is blaming the enlarged 25 member EU and the business freedom rules for the growth of unemployment. He said he wants to "return law and order to the business market":
”We can't allow people to bring in workers from other European countries, let them work here for peanuts and thereby destroy healthy German businesses,” Chancellor Gerhard Schröder said on Monday.and:
Franz Müntefering, the chairman of Schröder's Social Democratic Party, warned this week that ”the growing international power of capital” left no room for the concerns of individuals, companies and entire regions. ”The internationally imposed strategy of profit maximization poses a long-term threat to our democracy,” he said in a speech designed to draw the outlines of the party's new manifesto.but:
Wolfgang Franz, a member of the government's council of economic advisers, called minimum wages ”an import duty on labor.” He said ample empirical evidence showed the damaging effects of minimum wages and cited the past years' disproportionate income growth in lower wage segments as a key reason for the equally disproportionately high number of job losses among these groups.German authorities are also raiding places like meat-packing plants, looking for illegal workers, and they have announced that a conviction for hiring illegal workers could come with a jail term of up to three years. That's quite a penalty in Europe.
