JARVIS WORKERS ‘UNFAIRLY’ DISMISSED

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2014 :: RMTnews 11 And as if that is not enough there is a ‘flat-pack’ solution for employers to avoid AWR altogther, the so-called ‘Swedish derogation’ which is being used aggressively to keep down pay. Under this derogation, if the agency worker signs a permanent contract with an agency then there is no obligation for them to receive basic pay and conditions comparable to a permanent worker. The EU directive even demands that member states end ‘unjustified’ or ‘disproportionate’ restrictions on agency work such as 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 why Norwegian workers organised a strike against it last year. Backing the action, outgoing International Transport Workers Federation general secretary David Cockcroft said that Norway's legislation on contract labour 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 and agency staff that will themselves get inferior employment protection," he warned. As with the 12-week requirement, the Swedish derogation was a compromise conceded to the CBI by the TUC. But the directive is a reflection of the EU’s neo- liberal employment model which promotes labour market “flexibility” whilst providing minimum protections to soften the blow, “flexicurity” being the made-up word with which this model is sold. The EU’s much-derided Lisbon Agenda with its promise of ‘flexicurity’ was followed by ‘Europe 2020’. These agendas openly call for wages to reflect productivity, which means cutting wages even further. This has sparked unprecedented levels of unemployment under the guise of “restoring competitiveness” particularly in countries such as Ireland, Greece, Portugal and the Baltic states. The wholesale suspension of trade union collective bargaining as a condition of EU ‘bail outs’ in these countries also demonstrates that trade union rights are an obstacle to EU plans to restructure labour markets. The European Commission, IMF and the European Central Bank now directly intervenes in national wage negotiations in Ireland, Greece and Romania in order to weaken collective bargaining. Destroying the concept of a permanent job with rights and replacing it with precarious employment and exploiting a reserve army of cheap labour is the core strategy of so-called ‘globalisation’ and its regional arm the EU. The Bakers’ union BFAWU and RMT agree that the battle against zero hours is part of a wider fight against casualisation through bogus self-employment, agency, temporary and part-time work. As BFAWU regional official Geoff Atkinson told Labour Research: “We need to stand up against these practices otherwise, at the end of the day, they will eradicate everyone’s terms and conditions”. A n Employment Tribunal in Leeds has found that dismissals by Jarvis Rail Ltd in 2010 were unfair and that claimants represented by RMT had sufficient continuity of employment to make claims against engineering company Babcock. It found that liability for those dismissals and for shortfalls in the Insolvency Service payments passed to Babcock as a result of the transfer of the works. The union said that it was an important milestone victory on behalf of workers sacked after the collapse of rail infra- structure company Jarvis, formally headed up by top Tory Steven Norris. There will now be a further hearing in early March in Leeds to decide the value of the unfair dismissal claims. RMT’s Parliamentary group also tabled an amendment to the Pension Bill last October which calls on the government to fully protect pension benefits. The Con Dem opposed this amendment and, despite a lengthy debate in Parliament, it was not voted on due to time constraints. However it will now be debated by the House of Lords this month and the union will continue to push for this amendment to become law. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that in 2010 over a thousand workers were dumped out of work when Jarvis collapsed into administration as a result of shocking mismanagement that had nothing to do with the workforce. “Subsequently, when the work was taken over by Babcock’s, those same workers were hit again in a double- whammy that shows how the dice are loaded against the workforce and in favour of the management who walked away from these skilled rail workers without any penalty at all. “Those managers, including Steven Norris, have been free to set up shop and start again while their workers have been plunged into poverty. It is a shocking indictment on the whole capitalist system. “It is only through the guts and determination of RMT members and our lawyers at the Employment Tribunal that we have now recorded this milestone and the campaign for justice for the Jarvis workforce goes on,” he said. Some of the sacked Jarvis workers have been forced to travel hundreds of miles to find work which is often low paid and are employed by agencies on zero-hour contracts. JARVIS WORKERS ‘UNFAIRLY’ DISMISSED