Should Ireland host the new European Labour Authority?
This item was first published in SIPTU's magazine Liberty, September edition Why is Europe setting up this Authority now? The announcement that the European Union is to set up a new European Labour Authority (the Authority) is long overdue. Seventeen million workers now work abroad compared to nine million just a decade ago. A million and a half people commute across borders every day to work. Two million are posted to work in other Member States. In the absence of adequate protections many of these workers have been open to abuse. For years the left has called for better cross-border worker rights to combat abuse. In the absence of a Europe-wide framework on exploitation many Member States are already signing bilateral agreements - France alone has already signed eight. It’s estimated that over three hundred bilateral agreements are needed Europe-wide. There is a wide-spread belief that this patchwork of agreements is a poor form of enforcement and hence this pro