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Lisbon Treaty (No. 3)

No, I am going to make some progress and deal with the issue of labour rights, which is of concern to Members on both sides of the House. Paradoxically, critics of the charter either bemoan the potential disparity in the level of workers' rights across Europe, which they suggest will lead to legal chaos, or alternatively complain that the charter will open up our own employment laws to new legal challenges. Let me clarify the position. UK employees and citizens in general will not have fewer rights because of the protocol. In any event, as I said, the charter does not provide any new rights. Rather, it simply makes the rights that we already have more visible, and once the treaty comes into effect, it calls on EU institutions and member states to abide by them when they are implementing EU law. I have already quoted what the European Commission sets out on its website. It is true that, under the treaty establishing the European Community, the European Union already has power to legislate, by unanimity, for collective defence of workers' interests in the social chapter, but it has no powers to decide what rights to strike should exist in national law. Article 137 states:"““The provisions of this article shall not apply to pay, the right of association, the right to strike or the right to impose lockouts””." The Lisbon treaty does not change that; nor does the charter affect it. The explanation to Article 28 is explicit:"““The modalities and limits for the exercise of collective action, including strike action, come under national laws and principles””." The existing rights and principles recorded in the charter will continue to work as they always have. The protocol serves to put that beyond doubt, but it does not create any disparity between workers across Europe.