Ó Ríordáin: EU Inc. must not become a back door for weakening workers’ rights
Ó Ríordáin: EU Inc. must not become a back door for weakening workers’ rights - The Labour Party
Dublin Labour MEP Aodhán Ó Ríordáin has warned that the European Commission’s proposed “28th Regime” for company law risks creating a back door for companies to sidestep labour protections unless strong social safeguards are built into the proposal.
The proposal, known as “EU Inc.”, being led by Commissioner Michael McGrath, would create a new optional EU-wide company structure allowing firms to register digitally, quickly and cheaply, and operate with less rules across borders.
But Ó Ríordáin said Europe’s economic model cannot be reduced to deregulation and market access alone, warning that the EU’s strength has always been built on social rights, environmental protections and fair rules for workers.
Aodhán Ó Ríordáin MEP said:
“Yes, Europe needs successful businesses – but what we do not need is to kick labour law out the back door.
“Most people will not have heard of the so-called 28th Regime or EU Inc. being proposed by EU Commissioner Michael McGrath. But behind the technical language is a very serious question: will companies be allowed to choose a new European legal form while workers are left with weaker rights, weaker protections and weaker voice at work?
“Europe’s economic model is not meant to be a race to the bottom. It is built on the idea that growth must go hand in hand with social rights, environmental standards and decent work. Those protections are not obstacles to economic development, rather they are what makes Europe worth defending.
“This matters particularly in Ireland. We have some of the weakest labour protections in Europe, and many of the most important advances for Irish workers have come from European law. If EU labour rights are undermined, Irish workers will be among the first to feel it.
“If this regime allows companies to shop for the lightest obligations, avoid worker participation or undermine national labour standards, then it is not innovation. It is deregulation dressed up as “competitiveness”.
“The Commission and McGrath cannot cherry-pick. If they want a new European company form, then it must come with European-level guarantees for workers. That means no loopholes, no race to the bottom and no possibility for companies to use EU Inc. to dodge the rules that protect people at work.
“The Labour Party was built by the labour movement. We are the party of workers and, as the only Irish full member of the European Parliament Employment committee, I will continue to fight for them, in Dublin and Brussels.
“That fight is as relevant now as it has ever been. Workers’ rights are under siege, and too often new technologies are being used not to improve working lives, but to concentrate wealth in the hands of a small group of people.
“With my S&D Group I will oppose any version of this proposal that weakens labour law by the back door. Europe should be building a fair economy, not creating a new escape route from workers’ rights.”