Harney warns about bureaucratic EU laws which could hit jobs

THE Government should he slow to adopt European laws which lessened Ireland's attractiveness for investment, the Progressive Democrats leader, Ms Mary Harney, said.

She was speaking on the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Bill, which adopts an EU directive requiring multinational corporations above a certain size to set up international works councils.

Ms Harney said the measure would add to the costs of a multinational company setting up here. Employees would have to be selected, consulted and sent at the company's expense to international meetings. It might be just enough to encourage a company to set up in Britain or Northern Ireland, where they would not have to comply with this requirement because of the opt out from the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty.

The workers at the Packard factory in Tallaght should have been informed of their fate in a more civilised way, but she doubted if the provision for a statutory international works council would have made any difference. They might have known a little earlier that their jobs were going somewhere else.

There was a tendency for the Government to enthusiastically adopt directives where there was no immediate cost to the State and to be slow to accept directives, such as those on the environment, where the State would be involved in a direct cost.

But increasing the costs of industry through adding to bureaucracy had an effect on employment and would make it impossible to bring down the total number unemployed. "We will have jobless growth," she said.

The Government's objective should be to have less regulation, less bureaucracy, lower taxes and more competition.

The Minister of State for Labour, Ms Eithne Fitzgerald, said the Bill would introduce a new era in employee participation, marking an important development in industrial relations.

It arose from the EU Works Council Directive, which itself was a product of the European model of social partnership. "The model recognises that employees, as stake holders in their companies, should have a right to be informed and consulted about important business developments which may affect their futures," she said.

It would apply to large scale companies which employed at least 150 in each of two member states and at least 1,000 overall in the EU. It was estimated it would apply to about 200 multinational companies with operations in Ireland.

Employees of many Irish multinationals would elect representatives to sit at a forum with their opposite numbers from other EU countries where they and the company could work out shared approaches to future developments. It would provide an important place for the company and its employees to discuss opportunities and problems confronting them.

Mr Tom Kitt, the Fianna Fail spokesman on labour affairs, said it was a step towards building trust and avoiding a breakdown in communications. Consultation rights were a social investment, not something of which any company should be afraid.