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Les Ford is a Euro-advisor, paid by the South East TUC to guide people on the intricacies of living and working in Europe. He is versed in European employment law and practices, and the pan-European regulations on social security and pensions. The European Review can't resist a peep into other people's problems and we've been trying to get him to talk for ages
ER. Why do people contact you?
LF. Usually because they want to work abroad, or accompany someone who is going abroad and want to know what their rights are.
ER. Could we have an example?
LF. People decide to work or move abroad for a variety of reasons. Here are two recent cases and an ongoing investigation.
The Shortcomings of the NHS
A member of London's transport system recently asked my advice about getting a job in Germany. As well as driving one of London's finest, he is a boxer, or was until a trapped nerve in his hand put paid to his career. The surgical operation to correct this, he has heard, is free in Germany but not available on the NHS.
La Femme
My caller in this case had met a Swedish woman on an English language course and wanted to move to Sweden as a carpenter. I made some enquiries with the Swedish Employment Service and discovered that self-employment is not encouraged in Sweden, in contrast to the UK. I put the carpenter in touch with the Swedish building workers union who may be able to steer him towards some work.
The Belgian seaman
This case concerns proving that you have been working in the EU. I was contacted by another trade union adviser in Europe about an ex-seaman, currently unemployed. He needed proof that he had paid National Insurance contributions when he was employed as a seaman in the UK, sailing out of the port of Southampton. The issue is whether the ships he sailed on were UK registered. After making enquiries I discovered that ships registers are stored all over the world and I would have to find the register that kept records of the ships the seaman had sailed on. I knew their names but this was not enough. I got the official number of the ships from Lloyds Register and looked for the records with those numbers. My first port of call was the Public Records Office in Kew, where about one in ten of ships registers are kept, but the numbers I sought weren't there. I have since contacted the Memorial University of Newfoundland, which also keeps registers but haven't located his ships. I'm still looking for proof of the seaman's employment and I hope to have better news for a future European Review.
The French civil service have been told that under the EU equal treatment directive, it is not lawful to deny a woman an annual performance assessment on the grounds that the employee is on maternity leave at the relevant time. Such reviews are often a signpost on the way to promotion.
Under the same directive, the European Court of Justice ruled this year that it is unlawful to dismiss an employee because of incapacity for work brought on by pregnancy. This constitutes direct sexual discrimination as only women are liable to pregnancy related illness. Furthermore, where a contract exists allowing an employer to dismiss staff after a stated length of absence, it may not apply in pregnancy related cases. In this case, the company at fault were Rentokil, who fired a van driver after six months' absence.
A Greek doctor working in the German public sector was discriminated against, the ECJ ruled, when she was paid at a lower rate than her colleagues. The rate was decided using a clause in a collective agreement which rewarded staff automatic promotion after a stated period of service. The clause did not take into account similar experience served in another member state. The Court held that the clause was null and void because it discriminated on grounds of nationality.
An organisation representing small firms in the EU challenged the parental leave agreement on the grounds that they should have been consulted. The agreement was tendered by the Etuc and the European employers federation Unice. The Court replied that it had no jurisdiction in this matter.
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