Unions rally support against EU Services Directive

UNION members from across the EU converged on Strasbourg yesterday to protest at the Services Directive, which proposes to liberalise the European services market.

With up to 50,000 protesting in Strasbourg, members of the IMPACT trade union gathered outside the Dáil to urge Irish MEPs to back a watered-down version of the directive agreed between the two main parliamentary political groups the European Peoples' Party and the Party of European Socialists.

According to the European Commission, liberalising the EU services market will create 600,000 jobs and boost economic growth.

But unions believe it could result in the displacement of workers in wealthier states by accession state workers a fear which has risen to the fore of the political agenda here in the wake of the Irish Ferries scandal.

The most contentious element of the proposal is the country-of-origin principle which would allow workers from accession states work in any other EU nation under the employment conditions of their own country.

"This would put decent employers and governments under immense commercial pressure to abandon national workplace rights and environmental protection in a continent-wide race to the bottom.

"And it would undermine national consumer protection and make it harder for consumers to get redress if they're ripped off by service suppliers," said IMPACT spokesman Bernard Harbor.

Concern over the directive has also been raised by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions at preparatory talks on a social partnership deal where talks on jobs' displacement and workers' rights have been prominent.

Speaking from Strasbourg yesterday SIPTU president Jack O'Connor said the directive, if unaltered, was like a "blank cheque for exploiting workers and ripping off the consumer".

The European Parliament is due to take a crucial vote on the measure tomorrow.