More rights for workers

Workers rights in the UK lag behind those of almost every other European country, causing greater numbers of job losses here says

, the UK’s largest manufacturing, technical & skilled persons' union.

According to Amicus, workers in the UK are more vulnerable to layoffs than their counterparts in the rest of Europe when multinationals make job cuts. Amicus says that’s because the rights of workers in the UK are the weakest in Europe and, among the richest industrialised nations, only the US has weaker job protection.

Amicus maintains it’s no coincidence that the UK displayed the highest number of the restructuring cases announced across the EU during the last three months of 2004 and it is urging a third term Labour government to strengthen employment protection.

The UK also has the highest number of redundancies. Of the 69 restructuring cases recorded by the European Restructuring Monitor for the UK, 57 involved job losses in excess of 100 - the highest rate in all the 18 EU countries monitored.