European Review Issue 41 page 5

RECENT EU PRESIDENT PORTUGAL found its plan to link two contentious issues backfiring at the Employment and Social Ministerial Council in Brussels in December. While trying to get some movement on the long-deadlocked Temporary Agency Worker (TAW) directive and on the amendment of the Working Time directive from which the UK has an opt-out, the Portuguese government thought it had found a way forward by seeking an overall deal. In return for guaranteeing that the exception could be permanent, negotiators believed that the British government might agree to drop its insistence that equal rights for temps should only start after six months work. On the other side of the fence, the group of countries led by France seemed to be prepared to allow the UK its working time derogation so that temporary workers would gain full employment protection.
In the event the plan just seemed to make things worse as UK ministers condemned the linkage as a ‘a terrible way to do business’ while the opposite tendency, already anxious about Britain gaining what would amount to its own law on working time, demanded that the ‘six month rule’ be dropped. Nevertheless there was still a chance that the TAW law would go through as a change of government in Poland had denied the UK a large enough alliance to block it in a vote. However the chair of the committee, Portuguese Minister for Labour Mr Viera da Silva, did not allow matters to develop that far. Although he stated that ‘considerable headway in the European debate on these two Directives’ had been made, there was much speculation as to why he had passed the buck to Slovenia and France, the next two Member States to assume the EU Presidency. It was thought that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had intervened with EU Commission President Barroso on the grounds that a reverse for the UK would make it harder for him to ratify the upcoming reform treaty in the face of Eurosceptic opposition. There were even rumours, denied by both governments, that he would not attend the treaty signing ceremony in Lisbon if the vote was lost.
Whatever the reasons, reaction to the failure to make progress was harsh in both union circles and among Socialist MEPs. ETUC General Secretary John Monks said ‘We are getting fed up with the UK business refrain being echoed uncritically by the UK government … How is it possible that other EU countries can do well in terms of economic growth and low unemployment without working time opt-outs, and with rules on equal treatment of agency workers in force?’ Brendan Barber, for the TUC, agreed ‘our long hours culture and unfair treatment of agency workers will only end when government stops its capitulation to a one-sided business agenda’. MEPs pointed out the paradox that a new ‘flexicurity’ policy was agreed at the same meeting yet practical implementation of it was not: ‘British and German ministers supported that but at the same time acted to block the agency directive’ commented Stephen Hughes, a UK Socialist.

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