The European Parliament has voted to end national opt-outs on the 48-hour week, setting up a clash with member states. MEPs voted by 421 to 273 that the opt-outs should end by 2011.
Ignoring the increasing insidious usurpation of accountable democratic power by these tin-pot dicto-bureaucrats, and not even touching upon the fact that these are chains that no other human should ever burden another with, this act shows how utterly out of touch the passengers on the Euro-gravy-train are from the recession that is now striking the people of Europe.
While most people across Europe feel lucky if they still have a job, the European Parliament has once again voted against the interests of the man or woman on the street. Of course union leaders such as Unite’s joint general secretary Tony Woodley are very happy with this turn of events. It would help bring down the more productive non-unionized workers to the level of the unionized workers. Unions are paid to represent the workers, not the rest of us.
France scrapped its 35-hour week for very good reasons. The IMF sums up as follows:
In sum, the 35-hour workweek appears to have had a mainly negative impact. It failed to create more jobs and generated a significant—and mostly negative—reaction both from companies and workers as they tried to neutralize the law's effect on hours of work and monthly wages.
John Cridland, CBI Deputy Director is spot on when he states that this will "replace opportunity with obstruction". The question for Cridland and all right-thinking people is: "If your partner has lost their job, should Brussels stop you from putting in extra overtime to support your family?" Exactly.
