Friday 3 June 2016

Which workers rights would Leavers scrap?


I have already outlined why I believe EU interventions are harmful. I also believe enshrining rights is a corrosive antidemocratic idea. Our workforce is fluid, habits change and so do working patterns. Attitudes also change. Consequently our system must be able to respond accordingly.

First off, leaving the EU does not mean a bonfire of rights and entitlements. Far from it. We are signed up to multiple International Labour Organisation conventions on equality and antidiscrimination and it is these upon which even EU laws are based. I don't see that we need EU rules in order to meet our ILO obligations. As to which specific laws we would scrap doesn't matter. What matters is that we are free to innovate and replace bad laws.

I expect first on the chopping block would be the Agency Workers Directive. If you are a leftist, that naturally means we Leavers hate agency workers and don't think they should have any rights. That's because if you are left wing, intellectually and emotionally you are a child who cannot make the distinction between intent and consequence. (see image above)

As it happens the AWD is a bad piece of kneejerk lawmaking designed to plug holes created by previous labour market interventions by the EU - and the net result is lower pay and worse conditions. And as bad as that is, because it is made at the EU level it make repeal or reform virtually impossible.

The fact is we could scrap all of the EU rights but we will still need to regulate the labour market in accordance with the International Labour Organisation. Where there are gaps we will need effective unions. And that is what Brexit will bring about. Why the Labour Party is opposed to this beats the hell out of me.

For the time being we would not scrap any of the EU rules as we would adopt them wholesale, setting up parliamentary working parties to come up with a replacement more befitting the UK labour market. We won't see change for a while.

But we do need a more agile labour market because growth is still bumping along the bottom. We shouldn't have a common EU labour market because we are culturally very different from our neighbours - with wholly different economies. France especially, who set fire to cars at the drop of a hat. Protest is a national pastime.

If you think those evil Tories will rob you of your rights if we leave the EU then you have an ultra leftist in charge of the Labour party. You are free to vote for it. But to say we should stay in the EU because it prevents our own government from designing solutions fit for this century is just flat dumb. Could the left please grow up, just for once?

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