Treaty is a threat to the pay and conditions of many Irish workers

WITH all the misinformation on the Lisbon Treaty, facts on how it would affect Irish peoples’ pay, say and way of life are needed more than ever.

Lisbon would affect these by fundamentally amending two existing treaties — the Treaty on European Union (TEU) and the Treaty Establishing the European Community, which would be renamed the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

1. Lisbon would copperfasten last December’s Laval/Vaxholm judgment of the EU Court of Justice, which makes it illegal for governments or trade unions to enforce pay standards higher than the minimum wage for migrant workers. At the same time Lisbon would give the EU full control of immigration policy (Article 79, TFEU). This combination threatens the pay and working conditions of large numbers of Irish people. A new treaty protocol is needed to set this aside.