NORWAY STRIKES AGAINST SOCIAL DUMPING

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2013 2012 :: RMTnews 17 Norwegian trade unions launched a general strike last year against the implementation of the EU Agency Workers Directive into national law and the social dumping that it would bring. The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) is demanding that the government reject the directive and introduce laws to ensure that wages and working conditions for those who are hired are the same as the permanent employees. Unions argue that the Directive undermines Norwegian labour laws and introduces large-scale use of temporary and agency workers, forcing out permanent workers and weakening workers' rights and collective agreements. The Directive also gives final authority over employment legislation to the European Free Trade Area (EFTA)court, very similar to the EU's European Court of Justice (ECJ) which has already struck down trade union collective bargaining rights in nearby Sweden and Finland in the Laval and Viking cases. Backing the action, International Transport Workers Federation general secretary David Cockcroft said that Norway's legislation on temporary employment was some of the best there is. "The Directive doesn't just risk taking a good law and making it mediocre - it could also strip the rights currently enjoyed by workers and open the floodgates to their replacement by precariously employed temporary agency staff who will get inferior employment protection," he said. being promoted by specialist workshops. Anecdotal evidence on social media reveals the negative consequences for pay and conditions’ with agency workers describing how they have been forced to sign an employment contract with agencies, waiving their right to protection under the AWR. Some agency workers are finding that they are now worse off, since their contract stipulates where they can be sent to work and they can potentially have little advance warning of assignments. Pertemps staff working as drivers for Marks and Spencers through the company Gist were forced to sign contracts which guaranteed work of just four hours a week (the legal minimum is one hour a week), anywhere within four hours of their nearest branch. Given the insecure nature of temporary employment, agency workers feel they have no choice but to sign such contracts. As with the 12 week requirement before the equality principle applies, the Swedish Derogation was a compromise conceded to the CBI by the TUC in order to get UK approval for the EU Directive. The vigour with which UK agencies have embraced the opt-out means that many agency workers are excluded from the benefits that were expected to flow from the AWR. Legislating to improve the conditions of agency workers has always been fraught with problems since legislation, whilst potentially improving the conditions of agency workers, runs the risk of institutionalising casual forms of labour. The EU Directive, though supported by the TUC, is a reflection of the EU’s employment model which promotes labour market “flexibility” whilst providing minimum protections to soften the blow, “flexicurity” being the buzz word with which this model is sold. The Directive also included the obligation on member states to end “unjustified” or “disproportionate” restrictions on agency work (for example, the ban on agency workers in the public sector in France and Spain). This extension of agency labour at the heart of the Directive explains the reaction of Norwegian trade unions, who organised a strike against the Directive (see below). In the UK, the expansion of agency labour throughout the economy continues with employers and agencies acting together to find ways to circumvent the limited obligations they now face as a result of the AWR. The Swedish Derogation is a particularly insidious response to the AWR which is being imposed on significant sections of agency workers. The challenge for trade unions is to push for equal pay and conditions whilst combatting the expansion of temporary agency work. In France, unions have begun to fight back against the encroachment of agency labour on labour standards by organising actions and occupations aimed at employment agencies. Similar action could be employed in the UK to expose those agencies and user firms that have adopted the Swedish Derogation model. *Christina Purcell is a trade union activist who recently submitted a PhD thesis on agency workers in the French car industry. NORWAY STRIKES AGAINST SOCIAL DUMPING