The EU Is Not a Guarantor Of Workers’ Rights

Brian Denny separates the chaff from the wheat in the EU rights debate.

Myth vs. Reality: Who Really Fought for Equal Pay?

Claims that the European Union is the benevolent protector of workers’ rights have gone largely unchallenged. Yet the truth is quite different. British trade unions and domestic legislation laid the groundwork for key advances in equality long before any EU directives.

For example:

• In 1888 the Trades Union Congress unanimously supported equal pay.
• The 1964 Labour manifesto included a Charter of Rights for all employees, demanding “equal pay for equal work.”
• Barbara Castle’s Equal Pay Act of 1970 was driven by the Ford sewing machinists’ strike at Dagenham and mass demonstrations by the National Joint Action Campaign for Women’s Equal Rights.

Pro-EU supporters often highlight Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome (now Article 141 of the Treaty of Amsterdam) as proof of EU progressiveness. Yet discrimination law expert Richard Townsend Smith noted that it was a concession to French workers who already had equal pay legislation.

To learn more, see our in-depth analysis of EU Workers’ Rights.

Austerity, “Better Regulation,” and the Erosion of Rights

The European Commission’s austerity programmes have often clashed with the cause of equality. Take maternity leave, for instance:

• Under current EU law the minimum is 14 weeks, whereas the UK offers 52 weeks of leave.
• A proposed directive to extend leave to 20 weeks was quietly withdrawn in July 2015 under the REFIT (“better regulation”) agenda.

According to Mary Collins of the European Women’s Lobby, economic crisis and austerity have been used as an excuse to dismantle gender equality across member states. Slovenia, once offering 100% salary on maternity, now pays as little as 10%.

Malin Björk, Swedish MEP, warned that scrapping the Maternity Leave Directive “contradicts the EU’s so-called commitment to gender equality and effective work-life balance.”

Further discussion is available in our article on Workers’ Rights in Europe.

National Legislation vs. EU Directives

Many key equality laws in the UK predate EU membership:

• Race Relations Acts 1965 & 1968
• Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970
• Sex Discrimination Act 1975

British workers and their organisations fought hard for these protections. Meanwhile, the EU still struggles with a significant gender pay gap six decades after the Treaty of Rome.

The True Guarantor of Workers’ Rights

The idea that the EU, with its austerity policies, mass privatisations and TTIP agenda, is ideologically committed to social justice is absurd. Real progress for workers has historically come from national trade unions and domestic political action, not from Brussels.

Trade Unionists Against the EU continue to campaign for a democratic, sovereign Britain that can set its own labour standards without being hamstrung by EU directives.

For further reading on this topic, explore our related piece on The EU’s Impact on Workers’ Rights.