LABOUR CALLS FOR COMPREHENSIVE EUROPEAN ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LAWS
Labour MEPs in the European Parliament are calling on the European Commission to honour the pledge it gave in its 2008 Annual programme to bring forward a European Directive to extend anti-discrimination legislation. We want to see comprehensive European legislation outlawing discrimination on the grounds of sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age and sexual orientation. It appears that Conservative governments and MEPs are putting pressure on the European Commission to limit its new draft directive only to discrimination on the grounds of disability. While Labour MEPs support extending legislation on disability we have put down amendments that argue that the new directive should prohibit all forms of discrimination, including direct and indirect discrimination against all groups in all areas that fall under EU competences as well as in education, lifelong learning, social protection and social security, housing and healthcare, images of discriminated groups in the media and advertising, telecommunications, electronic communications, transport modes and public spaces, social advantages and access to and supply of goods and services which are available to the public. You cannot build a modern and cohesive society on discrimination. Unions are being encouraged to write to the European Commission urging that the original proposal for an all-embracing horizontal framework directive is maintained.
BACKING FOR STUC CONCERN ON CALMAC
I have tabled a Parliamentary Question to the European Transport Commissioner, Jacques Barrot, on the Commission’s investigation into alleged subsidies to the state-owned ferry company CalMac. I have raised with the Commissioner the very real concerns of the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC), as well as leading economists, that, were the CalMac ferry network to be broken up, private operators would ‘cherry pick’ the most profitable routes. As CalMac provides lifeline services to some of Scotland’s most rural communities, the break up of the CalMac ferry network could have a negative impact on the lives and jobs of the Scottish citizens who reside in these island communities. I have also stressed the importance of concluding the investigation as speedily as possible in order to remove the uncertainty hanging over this important service.
UK VICTORY FOR AGENCY WORKERS USED TO PUT PRESSURE ON EU
Labour MEPs, who have relentlessly campaigned for the protection of agency workers in Europe, have welcomed the agreement reached in the UK on equal treatment, after 12 weeks employment, for agency workers. For too long many thousands of agency workers, who are also often migrants, have been subject to exploitation, frequently finding themselves on very low wages, poor terms and conditions and working for anti-union employers. This agreement has ended six years deadlock and is seen as an excellent opportunity to move forward to comprehensive UK and Europe wide legislation being put on the statute book as soon as possible. It is hoped that this breaking of the deadlock will pave the way to an agreement on the European Directive on Agency Workers at the next meeting of the Employment Ministers in Brussels.
EUROPEAN COURT RULING BENEFITS FIXED TERM WORKERS
The European Court of Justice (EJC) has made a ruling that will offer fixed term workers better protection of their rights under European law. The ruling has tightened up the framework agreement, which establishes the principle of equal treatment of fixed term workers with comparable full time workers, and obliges Member States to take measures to prevent the abusive use of successive fixed term contracts. The workers involved in the current ruling in Ireland had been employed for long periods on chains of fixed term contracts, and had been denied a range of benefits that permanent workers enjoy such as pay increases and pension. This ruling will help to secure a better protection for fixed term workers around Europe.
DAVID MARTIN MEP (Scotland) PO Box 27030 Edinburgh EH10 7YP 0131 654 1606
david@martinmep.com www.martinmep.com | 
