On Workers’ Rights
Posted at 5:14 am by Conor SloweyIn an earlier post I asserted that the Charter of Fundamental Rights will increase the protection of workers' rights in EU law, and Owen has written a great article on the misinterpretation of past cases. If the Lisbon Treaty is rejected, then the position of workers' rights in EU law stays the same.
So it's hard to see exactly how workers' rights can be used as a reason to reject the treaty: the No campaigners on the left have yet to produce a convincing alternative, and it's hard to see how the political shape of the EU and the member states could support their demands.
Laval, Lisbon and workers’ rights
Posted at 4:51 pm by Owen RooneyWorkers' rights are undoubtedly one of the central points of the campaign, and depending on who you ask, Lisbon will either enhance workers' rights, or usher in a capitalist dystopia where multinational corporations squeeze the life out of workers for pennies a day. Joe Higgins is clearly of the latter opinion, but it's his repeated linking of worker's rights in the Lisbon Treaty to the so-called "Laval" judgement of the European Court of Justice that I'm going to turn my attention to today.