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BackOver the past weeks, the European Commission has worked on expanding and deepening the Single Market. This Wednesday, Single Market Commissioner Michel Barnier presented a relevant proposal. From a trade union point of view, some points in the paper are raising alarm bells, as market and trade barriers have been removed, but important employment aspects are ignored. The proposal of the Commission does not address the situation in the labour market, even though it presents an important part of the Single Market. It gives priority to the interests of the free market.Further market openings planned
The Single Market Act II contains ideas for new liberalisations, in particular in the energy and transport sectors. Using the buzzword competitiveness, which would result in more cost effective and better offers, the Commission tries to put a lucrative spin on this idea. However, experiences, in particular in the railway sector show that market opening and competition force businesses to save costs, which in turn has a negative effect on employees and service quality. Savings are mainly achieved by reducing personnel costs, for example by downsizing, outsourcing work to external providers (e.g. cleaning services) and by increasing atypical resp. precarious employment. These restructurings by businesses increase workload and pressure and at the same time reduce investments in training, health and safety. In turn, these and other points have an effect on general safety in rail transport. Hence privatisation experiments, in particular in the railway sector are misguided.
What has been ignored in the Single Market Act II?
The proposal contains some insufficient sections; hence the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) demands:
-The EU Posting of Workers Directive and the implementation of the EU Services Directive must contain measures against wage and social dumping. Social standards are only too frequently undermined; in particular in respect of the cross-border deployment of employees. Hence, this makes fixing of wage and social standards resp. fundamental social rights, parts of which have the status of human rights within the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), even more important. Unfortunately, searching the Single Market Act II for these important points is in vain.
-A comprehensive and affordable supply of basic public services must be guaranteed
-Issues concerning employment and the environment are inseparably linked to the Single Market and therefore have to be taken into account.
Commissioner Barnier hopes for the various ideas of the Single Market Act II to be implemented by Spring 2013. The trade unions, however, demand a revision of the proposals, including an analysis of the impact of the Single Market on the employment situation in Europe and in respect of how the European social models work.
The Single Market Act II contains ideas for new liberalisations, in particular in the energy and transport sectors. Using the buzzword competitiveness, which would result in more cost effective and better offers, the Commission tries to put a lucrative spin on this idea. However, experiences, in particular in the railway sector show that market opening and competition force businesses to save costs, which in turn has a negative effect on employees and service quality. Savings are mainly achieved by reducing personnel costs, for example by downsizing, outsourcing work to external providers (e.g. cleaning services) and by increasing atypical resp. precarious employment. These restructurings by businesses increase workload and pressure and at the same time reduce investments in training, health and safety. In turn, these and other points have an effect on general safety in rail transport. Hence privatisation experiments, in particular in the railway sector are misguided.
What has been ignored in the Single Market Act II?
The proposal contains some insufficient sections; hence the Austrian Trade Union Federation (ÖGB) demands:
-The EU Posting of Workers Directive and the implementation of the EU Services Directive must contain measures against wage and social dumping. Social standards are only too frequently undermined; in particular in respect of the cross-border deployment of employees. Hence, this makes fixing of wage and social standards resp. fundamental social rights, parts of which have the status of human rights within the meaning of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), even more important. Unfortunately, searching the Single Market Act II for these important points is in vain.
-A comprehensive and affordable supply of basic public services must be guaranteed
-Issues concerning employment and the environment are inseparably linked to the Single Market and therefore have to be taken into account.
Commissioner Barnier hopes for the various ideas of the Single Market Act II to be implemented by Spring 2013. The trade unions, however, demand a revision of the proposals, including an analysis of the impact of the Single Market on the employment situation in Europe and in respect of how the European social models work.