BRITAIN’S WAVE of wildcat strikes protesting against the use of “foreign” – EU – labour continued to escalate yesterday despite the Labour government’s apparent assurance that employers at the Lindsey oil refinery in Lincolnshire had not discriminated against British workers.
As the arbitration and conciliation service opened talks with the parties to the Lincolnshire dispute – and while awaiting its report on whether any domestic or European employment laws have been broken – business secretary Peter Mandelson said allegations used to justify the unofficial action were “not founded”.
It also became clear last night that the British government is not proposing to take unilateral action to seek changes to the EU posting of workers directive which facilitates the free movement of services within the European Union.
Health secretary Alan Johnson had sparked speculation about such a move when he voiced concerns that recent court rulings in Swedish and Finnish disputes had created confusion and potentially allowed foreign employers to “undercut” British workers in terms of pay and conditions.
The Lindsey dispute was sparked by Italian subcontractor Irem’s decision to employ some 400 Italian and Portuguese workers on a new £200 million contract. Calling for a clarification of EU law, Mr Johnson said: “If workers are being brought across here on worse terms and conditions, that would be wrong, and I can understand the anger about that.” A spokesman for the Department of Business and Enterprise told The Irish Times, however, his understanding was that the EU directive did not allow for this – while any analysis of court rulings suggesting otherwise would be a matter for concern and collective consideration across the EU as a whole.
In a statement to peers, meanwhile, Mr Mandelson said: “It would be quite wrong and indeed against the law for companies to advertise vacancies and exclude British people from them. Equally it would run contrary to the principles of the single market and indeed harm British people working abroad for us to exclude foreign workers from employment in the UK.”
His statement came as contractors at two nuclear plants, Sellafield and Heysham, joined the protest action that has acutely embarrassed the Labour government with its focus on prime minister Gordon Brown’s 2007 conference promise of “British jobs for British workers”. Some 1,300 Sellafield workers are believed to be participating in a 24-hour stoppage.
Hundreds more joined protests at Longannet in Fife and at the Grangemouth refinery in central Scotland, and at stations and refineries at Warrington, Selby in North Yorkshire, Thurrock in Essex, and Milford Haven in west Wales.
Protesters at the Lindsey plant were told employer Total had concluded talks with union officials saying there would be no resumption until staff returned to work.
In his statement, Mr Mandelson quoted Total’s own assurance that “it never has been, and never will be, the policy of Total to discriminate against British companies or British workers”. Total went on to say that “it subcontracts on a fair and non-discriminatory basis and that the wage rates are the same as for equivalent jobs on the site”.
Mr Mandelson said this statement addressed two key allegations – that use of overseas labour led to an erosion of wages for all concerned because these workers were paid less than their UK counterparts, and that there was discrimination in recruitment practice against British workers.
“The statement issued by Total . . . confirmed that workers from overseas are paid at the same rate as other workers on site,” he said. “And it further confirmed that they do not operate any policy of discrimination with regard to tendering or recruitment. The same rules apply here as they do with UK companies bidding for work overseas – and I would remind the House that there are 300,000 UK companies operating elsewhere in Europe.”