MEP attacks Brown’s opt-out on tough illegal worker law
A LONDON Euro-MP has slammed Gordon Brown’s Government for opting out of EU legislation to tighten up on illegal workers. MEPs today are set to endorse a new EU law banning companies employing illegal workers from bidding for public sector contracts for up to five years. But the UK Government intends invoking its opt-out’ clause
A LONDON Euro-MP has slammed Gordon Brown’s Government for opting out of EU legislation to tighten up on illegal workers.
MEPs today are set to endorse a new EU law banning companies employing illegal workers from bidding for public sector contracts for up to five years.
But the UK Government intends invoking its opt-out’ which would mean the legislation having no effect in Britain, according to Lib Dem Justice & Human Rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford.
“It is imperative to crack down on rogue employers,” she said. “They commit a triple whammy by encouraging the traffickers who bring in illegal migrants, exploiting vulnerable people with pitifully low wages and atrocious conditions and cheating legal workers and the tax system by undercutting the legitimate labour market.”
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Penalties would also include convicted employers receiving no State aid and being forced to pay wages in arrears at legal levels, while repeat offenders facing criminal sanctions.
“The UK Government’s refusal to sign up on a skimpy pretext calls into question their credibility in vowing to tackle illegal immigration,” added Ludford.
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“It is like Gordon Brown’s two-faced pledge of British jobs for British workers’ while lauding globalisation—Labour’s credibility is being shot to pieces on fair working’ practices.”
Her attack comes in the wake of wildcat strikes sweeping Britain this week over foreign workforces being brought in for building contracts despite the Prime Minister’s pledge.
