My comments on Coalition plans to weaken employee rights, featured in several SE regional newspapers.

MEP hits out at coalition plans to make it easier to sack workers
Date: 17 January 2011 (http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/newshome/MEP-hits-out-at-coalition.6692781.jp)

A Labour MEP has hit out at government plans to make it easier to sack workers that have been employed for less than two years.

Peter Skinner, Labour MEP for the South East, has said the Coalition’s new charter would make it possible to allow companies to sack workers during their first two years of employment without the threat of being taken to a tribunal for unfair dismissal.

Other possibilities would be to require anyone bringing a case to an employment tribunal to pay a fee, in an effort to discourage spurious claims.

It has also been reported that the government will look at reducing the period of sick pay in the future, which is currently a minimum of £79.15 for up to 28 weeks.

Mr Skinner, a member of the economic and monetary affairs committee, said: ‘I am very worried about where this Conservative led government is going to draw the line in terms of destroying workers’ rights.

‘This government is currently making thousands of people in the South East unemployed and they are now threatening the job security of those left in employment. The protection of workers’ rights isn’t needless bureaucracy, it is fundamental to protecting our work force and ensuring that everyone is treated fairly at work.’

But prime minister David Cameron has said he believes that by relaxing the laws on employment, companies will be encouraged to take on thousands more staff.

He said: ‘We can only get our economy back on track by creating a climate in which the private sector can grow and develop.’

The President of the European Commission Jose Barroso (below, right) today addressed MEPs in Strasbourg in his inaugural ‘State of the Union’ address on the Commission’s vision for the future of the European Union.

While no Obama in terms of oratory skills, I have heard worse speeches than the one he delivered today. A high point was the re-statement of the Commission’s commitment to continuing work on developing the Single Market, including the creation of a single EU patent and reducing red-tape for SMEs looking to conduct business cross-border in the EU. This is critical. The Single Market is surely the EU’s greatest tangible achievement, and the Commission is right to target it as a crucial area where the EU can really add value to the lives of European citizens.

I also liked the proposal of a ‘European Vacancy Monitor’ to show EU citizens where job opportunities exist for them beyond their home market. Lack of job mobility has been a key hindrance in developing the Single Market. This could be a good step in helping to address that.

I did not like however the President’s words on the sustainability or otherwise of national budgets. Mr Barroso has clearly come along way from his early leftish political leanings. He now claims that “debt and deficit lead to boom and bust”. My fear is that in following the mantra of rightwing governments across Europe the President is now committing the Commission to a similar mindset. This is despite the very strong arguments – which I support – that the recovery is not yet secure and that cuts, if they are necessary, should be well targeted and gradually introduced, rather than ‘slash and burn’. The previous Labour Chancellor of the Exchequer believed that the UK could only afford to cut its deficit by half over four years without damaging economic prospects.

The Commission does not have direct power over national budgets, but it will still influence how European finance ministers adopt the various proposals around economic governance under consideration. It is of concern that Mr Barroso has joined the apostles of austerity – Osborne, Merkel et al – just when the Commission should be devising strategies for growth in Europe.