LO President on decision by EU Commission

- Barosso has opted for a policy contrary to the interests of the European wage earners, LO President, Wanja Lundby-Wedin, says.

The EU Commission decided that there will be no revision of the Directive on the Posting of Workers. The decision is contrary to the European Parliament which in October with a great majority called for a revision of the Directive on the Posting of Workers. The intention of the revision was to secure a better balance between trade union rights and economic freedoms in the EU internal market.

- It is not acceptable that the President of the EU Commission so clearly and so heedlessly opts for curbing the interests of the European wage earners, Wanja Lundby-Wedin says.

The decision of the Commission is a reaction to the report by the European Parliament on the status of collective agreements within EU. In this report, the European Parliament puts forward two requests: the introduction of a social protocol which is to obtain an equilibrium between basic trade union rights and economic freedoms, as well as the revision of the Directive on the Posting of Workers with the aim to provide possibilities for the member states to prevent workers of other countries from getting less favourable working conditions.

- If the Commission in this way thinks that they can prevent the issue from being brought up in the election to the European Parliament, a misjudgement has been made. A revision of the Directive on the Posting of Workers will be central to LO when the new Commission is to be elected.

In the reply to the European Parliament, the Commission neglects the basic issue, i. e. the issue of balance between trade union rights and economic freedoms.

- It is very weird that the Commission does not seriously consider the request for a social protocol. The issue of the balance between trade union rights and economic freedoms risks, in the long run, to turn into a fateful issue for the EU, Wanja Lundby-Wedin concludes.