November 22, 2007
Is the UK cornered on temporary workers’ rights?
An intriguing development here: it looks as if Britain has been cornered in a fight to settle two hugely controversial EU labour rules.
This would be more bad news for Gordon Brown, and infuriate some British employers.
To them, these laws - one on temps’ rights, the other on the maximum working week - are a pet hate, a sign of Brussels meddling in the UK’s flexible labour market.
But many countries are keen to get agreement on the rules, which are stuck in a legislative deep freeze after years of delays.
If the plan - put forward this week by the Portuguese EU presidency - goes through, the UK would have to compromise on one of the laws.
Basically Britain would have to give temps’ more rights, sooner. In return it would win on the other rule, supposedly securing forever its cherished exemption from an EU law that sets a maximum 48-hour work week.
One EU official said that the UK was isolated in its efforts to oppose this plan. But you can bet that Britain will fight tooth and nail over this, and, as such, that the Portuguese proposal is far from a fait accompli.
The trick for the Brits will be to ensure that they can keep enough blocking votes to scupper the proposal. For this, they’ll probably look to the Poles, under their new government, and the Germans.
A while back, Tony Blair did a classic backroom deal with Germany to secure Berlin’s votes on working time, and made an offer to the Italians as well.
Wonder if any new deals are in the offing in the next few weeks…
