The Lesson of Lindsey

February 17, 2009 by Wildcat 1
Filed under: Latest News

ACAS has now ruled that neither Total nor IREM broke any laws in the way they employed Italian and Portuguese workers at the Lindsey oil refinery. For those who want to read the full report, this can be found here:

http://www.acas.org.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=1019&p=0

ACAS say there is no evidence of “any unlawful recruitment practices”. But that, of course, is the problem! The fact that British workers can lawfully be excluded from even applying for jobs in this country goes to the heart of what’s wrong.

We accept that if there are skills or labour shortages then it is reasonable for an employer to bring in workers from abroad. But British workers should always be given the chance to apply for jobs in this country. The fact that IREM were able to stipulate that they would only employ foreign workers is simply not fair.

To be honest we never thought that Total or IREM, with all their sharp-suited lawyers, would be dumb enough to break the law. The problem is that the law is unacceptable. The lesson of Lindsey is therefore that the only solution to this problem is political.

The Posted Workers Directive (used by IREM), like 80% of all our laws, was written in Brussels. Westminster is nothing but a hot-air talking shop which rubber-stamps foreign laws and imposes them on us. We need a political solution that involves:

i. Leaving the EU. Let’s gain our independence and freedom to make our own laws. Yes, we can – and should – have agreements with other European countries so that we can travel and work abroad, but these agreements should be designed so that they are fair to ALL concerned. The EU’s laws are a ‘bosses charter’; it’s time to put the people first!

ii. Rejecting globalisation. A British government should be seeking to improve the living standards and quality of life of the British people, but the current obsession with globalisation is instead a race to the bottom. The only way we can compete with countries where workers are paid a pound a day is to reduce our own wages and conditions. Competition can be a good thing, but only when it’s between countries with the same wage levels and standards of living. Globalisation only benefits the multi-national companies that can move their production to wherever they can pay their workers the least.

This is not a political website so who you vote for is up to you, but just make sure that they really mean it when they say ‘British Jobs for British Workers’!

Tags: