‘Worker rights will be strengthened by treaty’

THE Lisbon Treaty will strengthen workers’ rights and claims to the contrary are unfounded, an Oireachtas committee has said.

In a new report, the cross-party Committee on European Affairs said claims by the No campaign that Lisbon would undermine employees’ pay and conditions were “without basis”.

No campaigners have argued that a series of European Court of Justice judgments – known as the Viking, Laval, Ruffert and Luxembourg cases – prioritised the EU’s free-market principles above workers’ rights.