06 June 2007

Jobs for the boys

This is an interesting idea but it is far from clear how it can be delivered. The Independent reports:
Gordon Brown yesterday promised his union backers for the leadership of the Labour Party that as Prime Minister he will ensure British people get first refusal on jobs in Britain...
In a further reassurance to the unions, he said he wanted to ensure that 200,000 jobs in construction, the hospitality industry and the financial services for the London Olympics also went to British workers. It follows growing concern that many of the jobs on the 2012 Olympics would go to lower paid migrant workers from Poland and other new entrants to the European Union from the former Warsaw Pact countries.
"We are about to sign agreements for the Olympics and the construction trade so that the jobs in London go to people who are trained up here in Britain to get the jobs that are available," he said.
"I want to extend it too to the hospitality trade, to construction and to the financial services. I want... these jobs to go to British workers with skills that are given by us to enable them to get the jobs that are available," he said.

The rules of the EU do not allow governments (or private sector employers) to discriminate in favour of domestic labour to the detriment of workers from other parts of the EU. Now you may think that this situation is crazy or unfair, but it is a fact. Either Mr Brown is ignorant of one of the most basic tenets of EU law or he is deliberately misleading his trades union audience.

No comments: