Brussels, 06/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - “Flamanville: an example of modern slavery”. Companies which get round European and national social laws to exploit workers “should be put on a blacklist and should not be allowed to operate in Europe”. This is the emphatically expressed opinion of Pervenche Berès, made in the context of a visit by a delegation of the Socialist and Democrat Group(S&D) of the European Parliament last Friday to the building site where the EPR nuclear reactor is being built at Flamanville (Manche, France) (EUROPE 10409).
In the view of the chair on the committee on employment and social affairs of the EP, the fate of the European workers at Flamanville is a typical case of getting round European rules on the secondment of workers. Pervenche Berès goes on to send out a serious warning to the Barroso Commission: “we are going to use this case to ask the Commission once again to revise the rules on seconded workers within the EU, in order to fight social dumping”. Pervenche Berès announced that a debate would be opened with the Commission in September, after the summer break. Additionally, the S&D will request, in the framework of public procurement procedures, measures to clarify social responsibilities in the chain of the owner's subcontractors.
The MEP of the constituency in question, Estelle Grelier, described it as “unacceptable” that unscrupulous companies are using loopholes in European and national laws to exploit workers. The German MEP Jutta Steinruck stressed that the Socialists and Democrats are committed to applying the principle of “equal work for equal pay at the same workplace”, reiterating that people who are asked to go and work in another member state must have access to union rights, social security, a decent wage and pension contributions.
The S&D MEPs noted what they describe as the “lack of scruples” on the part of the French electricity company EDF (which is building a new-generation nuclear reactor representing €5billion of investment) and of the construction group Bouygues (which won the contract to manage the project). The MEPs spoke out against the working conditions of several hundred workers on the EPR site. This is the first stage of a mobilisation of the European institutions, they announced in a press release. (G.B./transl.fl)