Austrian unions’ conference: Services Directive leads to social dumping
The Bolkestein Directive is part of the neo-liberal policies that citizens are rejecting with their no-vote in the recent referendums’ said Rudolf Hundstorfer, president of EPSU affiliated municipal services union (GdG) who opened the Conference. ‘Trade unions will continue to build Europe, and it has to be a social Europe’.
The conference focused on different aspects of the Services Directive such as the country of origin principle, freedom of establishment, the implications for public services, health care and social services and on women. As women occupy most jobs in services and many women in services work in low wage jobs, increased competition will not decrease the wage gap. The Commission has not fulfilled its obligation to gender mainstream equality, argued Sandra Frauenberger on behalf of public and private sector women trade unionists.
Frank Bsirske, President of Verdi addressed the Conference pointing out the many dangers and inconsistencies of the Directive, arguing for a complete overhaul of the Directive. He used a recent speech by Comissioner Verheugen to demonstrate how Europe’s political class would have sold out without qualms to the private sector if it were not for the massive opposition of unions and others.
EPSU Deputy General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan compared the progress of the services directive to the absence of progress in defining a European framework for public services. He called for public services values to be put at the core of the debate. Progress on protecting and promoting public services in Europe is also important in the context of the GATS negotiations, which are ongoing and leading up to a Ministerial Meeting at the end of the year.
MEP Evelyne Gebhardt introduced her report and her proposed amendments to the Services Directive. She is proposing the following to the Parliament: that public services be removed from the scope of the Directive, that the country of origin principle be changed into mutual recognition, that labour law and collective agreements are not part of the scope of the Directive and that the country in which a service is delivered can also control the company that delivers the service. In order for it to be adopted, Ms Gebhardt’s report needs a majority in the European Parliament, which is dominated by conservatives and neo-liberals. A representative of the Austrian government made clear that there is considerable support for the Directive among EU governments.
The conference was organised jointly by GdG and GPA (the Austrian private services trade union) on 2 June 2005 in Vienna.
In a separate development, in an interview with the Sud-Deutsche Zeitung, Elmar Brok, an influential German MEP for the EPP-party (the Christian democrats and conservatives), said that the lesson of the no vote in the French and Dutch referenda must be that several directives such as the Services Directive are withdrawn.
The conference focused on different aspects of the Services Directive such as the country of origin principle, freedom of establishment, the implications for public services, health care and social services and on women. As women occupy most jobs in services and many women in services work in low wage jobs, increased competition will not decrease the wage gap. The Commission has not fulfilled its obligation to gender mainstream equality, argued Sandra Frauenberger on behalf of public and private sector women trade unionists.
Frank Bsirske, President of Verdi addressed the Conference pointing out the many dangers and inconsistencies of the Directive, arguing for a complete overhaul of the Directive. He used a recent speech by Comissioner Verheugen to demonstrate how Europe’s political class would have sold out without qualms to the private sector if it were not for the massive opposition of unions and others.
EPSU Deputy General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan compared the progress of the services directive to the absence of progress in defining a European framework for public services. He called for public services values to be put at the core of the debate. Progress on protecting and promoting public services in Europe is also important in the context of the GATS negotiations, which are ongoing and leading up to a Ministerial Meeting at the end of the year.
MEP Evelyne Gebhardt introduced her report and her proposed amendments to the Services Directive. She is proposing the following to the Parliament: that public services be removed from the scope of the Directive, that the country of origin principle be changed into mutual recognition, that labour law and collective agreements are not part of the scope of the Directive and that the country in which a service is delivered can also control the company that delivers the service. In order for it to be adopted, Ms Gebhardt’s report needs a majority in the European Parliament, which is dominated by conservatives and neo-liberals. A representative of the Austrian government made clear that there is considerable support for the Directive among EU governments.
The conference was organised jointly by GdG and GPA (the Austrian private services trade union) on 2 June 2005 in Vienna.
In a separate development, in an interview with the Sud-Deutsche Zeitung, Elmar Brok, an influential German MEP for the EPP-party (the Christian democrats and conservatives), said that the lesson of the no vote in the French and Dutch referenda must be that several directives such as the Services Directive are withdrawn.
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